Yazidi woman sheds tears of gratitude after MPs OK rescue plan
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/10/2016 (2712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — A Yazidi woman who escaped the horrors of life as an Islamic State sex slave could not hold back her tears as she thanked Canada for unanimously supporting a call to offer asylum to others who have faced the same plight.
The House of Commons voted unanimously Tuesday in favour of a Conservative motion calling on Canada to agree the IS assault on Yazidis is a genocide and to rescue some of the victims within the next four months.
“I would like to tell every single member of Parliament, that the moment they were standing, I felt ISIS was losing something in that very critical moment,” Nadia Murad said through an interpreter following the vote. “Because ISIS never thought their slaves would one day come out and be speaking against them. They thought they’d always be their slaves.”
Murad was just 19 years old when her Yazidi village in northwest Iraq was seized by IS in August 2014, and she was sold as a sex slave to an IS fighter. Eighteen of her family members were executed, including six brothers and her mother. Since escaping she has become an international voice calling attention to the genocide, pleading for the world to help.
In May she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and in September was named a United Nations goodwill ambassador.
It’s estimated more than 5,000 Yazidis have been executed by IS, which has targeted them because they are not Muslim. Men and boys are forced to convert or face execution; women and girls — some as young as eight —are enslaved. Murad believes more than 3,000 Yazidis are being held captive.
Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel, who has been calling on Canada to rescue Yazidis for almost a year now, said she was “heartened” by the government’s support of her motion but the success will really be judged on what the government does to fulfil it.
Immigration Minister John McCallum said a Canadian delegation has already gone into northern Iraq to assess the situation. He offered no details after the motion passed including how many Yazidis Canada is willing to accept, or how many will be sponsored by the government, rather than private citizens.
He acknowledged many of them may initially be settled in Winnipeg and London, Ont., where almost all of the 400 Yazidis already in Canada live.
Winnipeg’s Operation Ezra, a coalition of 22 local organizations that banded together to sponsor Yazidis, could help as well. Chair Michel Aziza told the Free Press Tuesday that Winnipeg could take a significant number. The group already sponsored two families who arrived during the summer and five more families are in a refugee camp in Turkey awaiting final approval for travel to Canada.
Aziza said he is hopeful the government commitment to the motion Tuesday will mean many refugees will get government sponsorship, noting private sponsorship is slower because funds have to be raised.
“That is the point we have been making to the government all along,” he said. “The fastest way to deal with the genocide is to have the government sponsor them.”
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca