Yazidi refugee feels adrift in Canada
OTTAWA— A Yazidi refugee woman who was among the 1,200 Yazidis the Liberal government vowed to resettle in Canada says the women who have arrived here have been all but left on their own.
She’s urging the government to help them navigate their new world and to allow family members to join them in Canada.
Adiba, 27, fled her home in Iraq’s Sinjar district after Daesh militants massacred Yazidi villagers, capturing women as sex slaves, and says some of her family members were killed. Her parents and her brother are still living in a camp in Iraqi Kurdistan and she did not use her last name out of fear for their safety.
She says she was living in a refugee camp when she learned the Canadian government would sponsor Yazidi women to move to Canada. As one of the first of the group to arrive, she spent her first few nights scared and alone in a Toronto hotel until a non-profit group offered to help. “We were dropped off at the Radisson Hotel, staying in the lobby, hungry, thirsty,” she said through an interpreter.
While she’s grateful to be welcomed to Canada, she was on Parliament Hill Monday in support of a petition calling on the government to provide psychological and social supports to female victims of Daesh here.
A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said people fleeing Daesh are eligible beneficiaries under the Interim Federal Health Program for refugees, so they receive basic coverage for mentalhealth services, as well as prescription drug coverage for mental-health conditions.