Yazidi families forced to flee in Shingal.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Many European MPs are calling for countries to open the door to Yezidi asylum seekers under threat in Iraq and say they support intervention to stop Islamic militants from committing “genocide” against the persecuted minority.
The United Nations Security Council passed sanctions against six top Islamic State (IS/formerly ISIS) and Al-Nusra Front leaders on Friday, and the European Union (EU) gave permission to its member nations to arm the Kurds, who are struggling to fight IS.
On Saturday Yezidis reported yet another massacre: at least 80 men were killed and hundreds of women were kidnapped.
Tobias Huch, a member of the German Parliament for The Liberal Party, urged the international community to intervene immediately.
“In Rwanda we looked the other way, and here, now (we) must act. I hope that Germany and the entire EU recognizes its duties and prevents the genocide together with the USA,” Huch said.
He maintained that the best protection for the Yezidis is to equip provide weapons so that they can “finally defend themselves.” However, he added, “The right to asylum is a universal human right. The EU should protect people who are being persecuted.”
The call to open the door to potentially tens of thousands of Yezidis refugees is unusual in Europe, which has limited spots for refugees as EU nations face economic woes. The United Nations, Amnesty International and other rights groups have criticized European nations for not taking more refugees from Syria, for example.
“If we fail to provide security to them in their home country, they certainly have right to asylum in Denmark and the European Union,” Nikolaj Villumsen, a Danish MP with the Unity Party, said, echoing calls by several Danish MPs to take in Yezidi refugees.
“We cannot just watch while that fanatic and fascist groups, such as ISIS, kill Kurds, Christians and Yezidis,” Villumsen said, suggesting that Denmark work with the UN to set up humanitarian corridors and safe zones for civilians.
On her Facebook page, Yezidi Iraqi MP Vian Dakheel reported last week that she attended a meeting with EU leaders and European ambassadors, stressing “the need to find a solution and safe place for Yezidis and grant them asylum as soon as they arrive in the country.”
“There was a lot of sympathy from the ambassadors against Yezidis suffering and they will take back the ideas to their respective countries,” Dakheel wrote.
Dahkeel was injured in a plane crash close to Shingal Mountain earlier this week but told Bloomberg News from her hospital room in Istanbul on Friday, “We don’t want to leave our land, but the right to live comes before all. The US and the European Union have been very slow in acting.”
Jabar Amin, a Swedish MP for the Green Party, said any person whose homeland cannot guarantee his or hers life and security because of their political views, ethnicity or religious affiliation should have the right to be granted an asylum in Sweden and the EU.
“This principle must also apply to the Yezidis. The Yezidis, who are now seeking asylum in Sweden or any other EU country cannot be sent back there, and should be granted asylum,” Amin said in a position supported by another Swedish member of parliament, Ann-Margarethe Livh.
“What’s happening in Shingal is terrible. If their security cannot be guaranteed, we should grant them asylum,” Livh said.
Struan Stevenson, a British Member of the European Parliament and President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association, a Brussels-based NGO focusing on Iraq, maintained that the west must do “everything in its power” to stop the ISIS and end the “brutality of their genocidal campaign against anyone they consider is an apostate or infidel.” He believed the future of the Yezidis must be secured in Iraq “at all costs.”
The United States has carried out several airstrikes against IS positions in Nineveh province and led a humanitarian mission to rescue and provide food for thousands of Yezidi refugees stranded on Shingal mountain. US President Barack Obama has said that it would not continue the humanitarian or evacuation missions because IS no longer controlled the mountain.
Harry van Bommel, a Socialist Party MP in the Dutch parliament, praised the American airstrikes against IS targets and hoped more help will be provided to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and its Peshmerga forces.
“If the Kurdish forces get the right (weapons), they can assure that the majority of Yezidis will be able to leave in their home country,” Bommel said. “But if peace cannot be secured, we as Europe should be more generous in accepting people, for example the Yezidis, coming here.”
Christina Kampmann, a member of the German Parliament, called the situation of the Yezidis in Shingal “terrible and dangerous” and demanded Europe expand aid and offers of asylum.
Many western countries have donated money to the people of Shingal but critics say it isn’t enough. The Danish government has decided to donate 2 million Danish krone or $360,000 which “is too low,” according to Villumsen.
Some MPs rejected the idea of asylum, however. Conservative Member of British Parliament, Nadhim Zahawi said the Yezidis themselves do not want to leave Iraq, which has been their homeland for thousands of years.
“All they want is their communities freed from the barbarity of the Islamic State, not asylum,” Zahawi said.
Charles Tannock, a European Parliament MP from Britain’s Conservative Party, argued for more restrictive policies.
“I would not accept an EU wide mandatory policy as already the UK takes large numbers of refugees from all over the globe,” he said.
Tannock said while western nations will have “a lot of sympathy” for persecuted Yezidis and Christians, taking in large numbers of refugees far from their countries makes it difficult for them to return when their country is safe again. In addition, asylum to minorities is exactly what groups like ISIS wants, he maintained.
“It plays into the jihadist appalling desire to expel all non-Sunni Muslims from the Middle East which would be an historic tragedy,” Tannock said.
Experts, meanwhile, described the threat against Yezidis as extreme.
Saliha Fetteh, an associate professor of Middle Eastern studies at University of Southern Denmark, said that if “someone needs asylum right now, it is the Yezidis.”
“They have always been persecuted and will always be, unfortunately,” Fetteh said.
Fetteh and Professor Christine Allison from University of Exeter, one of the leading European experts on Yezidis, agreed that we will soon see the “end of Yezidism in Iraq.”
Diyar Awde, a Yezidi who fled from ISIS and is now in neighboring Turkey, said he hopes for European asylum.
“Iraq is in the past for us now, it has become difficult for us,” he said. “We can’t live there as human beings.”
The United Nations Security Council passed sanctions against six top Islamic State (IS/formerly ISIS) and Al-Nusra Front leaders on Friday, and the European Union (EU) gave permission to its member nations to arm the Kurds, who are struggling to fight IS.
On Saturday Yezidis reported yet another massacre: at least 80 men were killed and hundreds of women were kidnapped.
Tobias Huch, a member of the German Parliament for The Liberal Party, urged the international community to intervene immediately.
“In Rwanda we looked the other way, and here, now (we) must act. I hope that Germany and the entire EU recognizes its duties and prevents the genocide together with the USA,” Huch said.
He maintained that the best protection for the Yezidis is to equip provide weapons so that they can “finally defend themselves.” However, he added, “The right to asylum is a universal human right. The EU should protect people who are being persecuted.”
The call to open the door to potentially tens of thousands of Yezidis refugees is unusual in Europe, which has limited spots for refugees as EU nations face economic woes. The United Nations, Amnesty International and other rights groups have criticized European nations for not taking more refugees from Syria, for example.
“If we fail to provide security to them in their home country, they certainly have right to asylum in Denmark and the European Union,” Nikolaj Villumsen, a Danish MP with the Unity Party, said, echoing calls by several Danish MPs to take in Yezidi refugees.
“We cannot just watch while that fanatic and fascist groups, such as ISIS, kill Kurds, Christians and Yezidis,” Villumsen said, suggesting that Denmark work with the UN to set up humanitarian corridors and safe zones for civilians.
On her Facebook page, Yezidi Iraqi MP Vian Dakheel reported last week that she attended a meeting with EU leaders and European ambassadors, stressing “the need to find a solution and safe place for Yezidis and grant them asylum as soon as they arrive in the country.”
“There was a lot of sympathy from the ambassadors against Yezidis suffering and they will take back the ideas to their respective countries,” Dakheel wrote.
Dahkeel was injured in a plane crash close to Shingal Mountain earlier this week but told Bloomberg News from her hospital room in Istanbul on Friday, “We don’t want to leave our land, but the right to live comes before all. The US and the European Union have been very slow in acting.”
Jabar Amin, a Swedish MP for the Green Party, said any person whose homeland cannot guarantee his or hers life and security because of their political views, ethnicity or religious affiliation should have the right to be granted an asylum in Sweden and the EU.
“This principle must also apply to the Yezidis. The Yezidis, who are now seeking asylum in Sweden or any other EU country cannot be sent back there, and should be granted asylum,” Amin said in a position supported by another Swedish member of parliament, Ann-Margarethe Livh.
“What’s happening in Shingal is terrible. If their security cannot be guaranteed, we should grant them asylum,” Livh said.
Struan Stevenson, a British Member of the European Parliament and President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association, a Brussels-based NGO focusing on Iraq, maintained that the west must do “everything in its power” to stop the ISIS and end the “brutality of their genocidal campaign against anyone they consider is an apostate or infidel.” He believed the future of the Yezidis must be secured in Iraq “at all costs.”
The United States has carried out several airstrikes against IS positions in Nineveh province and led a humanitarian mission to rescue and provide food for thousands of Yezidi refugees stranded on Shingal mountain. US President Barack Obama has said that it would not continue the humanitarian or evacuation missions because IS no longer controlled the mountain.
Harry van Bommel, a Socialist Party MP in the Dutch parliament, praised the American airstrikes against IS targets and hoped more help will be provided to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and its Peshmerga forces.
“If the Kurdish forces get the right (weapons), they can assure that the majority of Yezidis will be able to leave in their home country,” Bommel said. “But if peace cannot be secured, we as Europe should be more generous in accepting people, for example the Yezidis, coming here.”
Christina Kampmann, a member of the German Parliament, called the situation of the Yezidis in Shingal “terrible and dangerous” and demanded Europe expand aid and offers of asylum.
Many western countries have donated money to the people of Shingal but critics say it isn’t enough. The Danish government has decided to donate 2 million Danish krone or $360,000 which “is too low,” according to Villumsen.
Some MPs rejected the idea of asylum, however. Conservative Member of British Parliament, Nadhim Zahawi said the Yezidis themselves do not want to leave Iraq, which has been their homeland for thousands of years.
“All they want is their communities freed from the barbarity of the Islamic State, not asylum,” Zahawi said.
Charles Tannock, a European Parliament MP from Britain’s Conservative Party, argued for more restrictive policies.
“I would not accept an EU wide mandatory policy as already the UK takes large numbers of refugees from all over the globe,” he said.
Tannock said while western nations will have “a lot of sympathy” for persecuted Yezidis and Christians, taking in large numbers of refugees far from their countries makes it difficult for them to return when their country is safe again. In addition, asylum to minorities is exactly what groups like ISIS wants, he maintained.
“It plays into the jihadist appalling desire to expel all non-Sunni Muslims from the Middle East which would be an historic tragedy,” Tannock said.
Experts, meanwhile, described the threat against Yezidis as extreme.
Saliha Fetteh, an associate professor of Middle Eastern studies at University of Southern Denmark, said that if “someone needs asylum right now, it is the Yezidis.”
“They have always been persecuted and will always be, unfortunately,” Fetteh said.
Fetteh and Professor Christine Allison from University of Exeter, one of the leading European experts on Yezidis, agreed that we will soon see the “end of Yezidism in Iraq.”
Diyar Awde, a Yezidi who fled from ISIS and is now in neighboring Turkey, said he hopes for European asylum.
“Iraq is in the past for us now, it has become difficult for us,” he said. “We can’t live there as human beings.”
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