DUHOK, Kurdistan Region — Almost a year after ISIS overtook the Yezidi area of Sinjar and kidnapped thousands, the main way to free those still in the jihadists’ clutches is by buying them back through middlemen.
Since they were taken by ISIS last August as slaves and forced to convert to Islam, some 1,700 Yezidis have managed to escape. Many of them were able to run away, and with the help of locals, found their way out of the caliphate.
Some were helped by Kurdish aid workers who paid locals to help the girls escape. But in the past months, fewer and fewer women and girls were able to escape in this way. More and more, they have had to be rescued, or their freedom has had to be bought.
Some of those bought into freedom are those of the family of Jamal—not his real name—a Yezidi from Sinjar. Jamal was away when ISIS entered Sinjar on August 3. Part of his family managed to escape, but dozens fell into the hands of ISIS.
His is one of the families hit hardest, with 26 people kidnapped and 18 dead. In their tent in one of the refugee camps in the Kurdistan region, some of the family members came together to talk about their losses and their hopes. Pictures of victims change hands—taken during weddings and in happier times.
Some of the younger girls that were kidnapped were for some time able to keep in contact, Jamal said, and for that reason he knows they are in ISIS’ main cities Mosul and Raqqa.
Apart from being among the hardest hit, the family has also been among the most active in trying to get back their loved ones, as Jamal so far has been able to secure the release of 14 of the family’s captives.
Three children, five women and six young girls were able to return to the family because Jamal found them through middlemen, and was able to offer money to buy their freedom.
He does not want to tell much about the process, as 12 of his family members still remain with ISIS. “I have good contacts with members of Arab tribes living in Sinjar province, and they helped me with my search,” he said.
Sometimes he is told that ISIS fighters have put a slave girl, who is his family member, on sale. That is why he received the portrait of three young Yezidi girls, all completely dressed in black, and one of them a captured niece. This picture was shared digitally, as the girls are for sale. “The problem now is that my contacts do not know who the seller is, so the search goes on,” he said.
Prices for buying back a Yezidi girl have been said to differ, from a few thousand dollars to as much as $13,000. The amounts are high to buy her from her last owner in ISIS, and also middlemen have to be paid.
Paying for all those family members is not easy; Jamal has had a full time job arranging the money. Some organizations have helped him, some friends have lent money. The total amount he can never pay back.
While Jamal has freed only his family members, Yezidi lawyer Khaleel al-Dakhi from Sinjar has been able to save as many as 530 women and children from the hands of ISIS, or so he has told the British Channel 4.
He carried out many rescue missions after informants from inside ISIS territory leaked information, and next to that, escaped girls described the territory. That helped him carry out his first rescue mission of five young girls.
He works with a network of men who are gathering information. Allies living inside ISIS get smuggled phones so girls can tell Dakhi where they are living and how many guards are present. Eventually his contacts smuggle the women to a safe house inside ISIS territory. They make false ID cards and hide until it is safe, then guide the women on foot across ISIS land and towards Sinjar, sometimes walking for two days and nights.
In this way hundreds of women and girls have been saved, without having to pay their captors for their freedom. But three men who helped the women have been captured and killed by ISIS, according to Dhaki.
That would be Dakhi’s fate too if he were captured. “Of course my life is in danger, but I have to rescue our girls and our women,” he told Channel 4. “I try to protect myself because there are many of my people in ISIS jails waiting for me to rescue them. When I rescue one person from ISIS, I feel that I've had one victory against the terrorists.”
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