Case for urgent help
Canada wants to be known as a leader in protecting the rights and security of girls and women and says it “stands tall on the world stage with a strong and principled foreign policy.”
It could stand taller. Case in point is that of the Yazidis, who almost a year ago were besieged, murdered, kidnapped, enslaved and raped in Iraq by the group that calls itself Islamic State. The plight of the more than 5,000 women and girls who bore the brunt of the savagery shocked the world when some managed to escape and tell their horrifying stories.
Girls in their teens and younger returned pregnant after multiple rapes and forced marriage. All are mentally and physically injured and dozens committed suicide out of shame and despair. The survivors are living in squalor in rough shelters and refugee camps in Iraq’s Kurdish region and Turkey. Ottawa has said it can help with their care and rehabilitation.
But above all they need asylum in countries that will protect them. Canadian church groups say they are willing to step up as sponsors. Yazidi advocates have met with Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and received a positive response but no definite promises. His department agrees that Canada is well placed to protect vulnerable groups and says that sponsors can “submit applications whenever they are ready.”
In January, the government agreed to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next two years, the majority under private sponsorship. And while millions of desperate people are on years-long waiting lists to find new homes in safe countries, the predicament of the Yazidis gives them a strong case for swift action.
This small minority, belonging to one of the oldest religions in Mesopotamia, have no friends in their homeland of northern Iraq or in the region. Yazidis are condemned by Muslims as apostates and have been slaughtered over the centuries. The Islamic State group has boasted that no punishment is too brutal for its female Yazidi captives, and there are fears it will attack the community again.
Yazidis who escaped to Turkey are unable to work, send children to school or get medical and psychological care. They have begged Europe for asylum to no avail. But there are Canadians waiting to receive them, and Ottawa should move quickly on applications for those with the greatest needs. They would include several hundred girls and women whose lives have been blighted by unimaginable cruelty: small numbers for a large country like Canada. Refugee sponsorship, however, is a long process. Best would be a helping hand from the government, which can bring them here in months rather than years. Action, not mere talk, is urgently required.