Ottawa should take the lead
On Aug. 3, 2014, Iraq’s Yazidi minority was attacked by Daesh jihadists and subjected to some of the worst atrocities of the 21st century. The UN has declared it genocide, and the Canadian government has followed suit.
Two years after the attack, however, Ottawa’s response to the Yazidis’ plight remains sluggish, as the immigration department struggles to meet its pledge to bring in and resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees. Only a small trickle of Yazidis has been able to enter Canada.
Although the department says it is “putting plans in place” to process government-assisted and privately sponsored refugee cases from northern Iraq — where tens of thousands of vulnerable Yazidis are sheltering in precarious conditions — its plans include only Syrian refugees.
This is at a time when the UN commission investigating Daesh’s human rights abuses against the Yazidis has raised the alarm that the genocide is ongoing, and made an urgent plea for their “rescue, protection and care.” A call that thousands of survivors, and their anxious relatives, have been making since the Daesh assault.
There is no question that the Yazidis are among the most threatened minorities in the Middle East, and that they meet any criteria for vulnerable people in need of protection.
Kurdish-speaking followers of a mystical religion with elements of Zoroastrianism, Islam and Christianity, they have been persecuted as heretics and devil worshippers by the jihadists, who captured their homeland of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq.
Over the centuries, the Yazidis have experienced numerous attempts at annihilation. This time, women and girls have been singled out for the most savage treatment, which the UN says includes “a pattern of abduction, rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, forced pregnancy, forced abortion and human trafficking” that continues until today.
It is troubling that Ottawa has not taken the compassionate lead in bringing survivors to Canada. Some are in Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey, and others risking their lives to reach Europe in rickety boats. Dozens have died in the attempt.
The Trudeau government has remained strangely impervious to their plight.
Thousands of Yazidis are languishing in Turkish camps, segregated for safety from others who might attack them for their religion. Canadian groups who are trying to sponsor them say they have fallen back in the queue as the traumatized Syrian refugees were fast-tracked.
Although Yazidis in Iraqi Kurdistan are displaced in their own country and thus not refugees under the UN convention, a recent House of Commons Immigration Committee study concluded that the government should “create and implement special measures” to help them, as Germany has done.
For those outside Iraq, the immigration department takes its cue from the UN refugee agency, which counts vulnerability as a key factor in identifying refugees for resettlement. But without tracking of the ethnic, religious and sexual orientation of those who are admitted to Canada, it is impossible to say how many are in the most vulnerable categories.
Entry of Yazidis and other endangered minorities could be accelerated by allowing humanitarian groups who work with them to submit lists of vulnerable people they have already identified as in harm’s way. Groups who work closely with Yazidis — such as Operation Ezra and Project Abraham — have urged this.
They also suggest that Ottawa adopt a “hybrid” refugee program allowing for government assistance to admit Yazidis, and private organizations working with the Yazidi community to help them once they are in Canada.
Creative thinking is clearly needed. As deeply traumatized Yazidis dread what the next year will bring, Canada should show its generosity with action, not bureaucratic words.