ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A nine-year-old Yezidi boy found in Turkey was reunited with his family on Thursday after six years of Islamic State (ISIS) captivity.
“Our teams from the Ministry have been working on his case in the Turkish embassy for over a year,” Ali Abbas, Spokesman for Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement told Rudaw on Thursday.
Barzan Ibrahim was only two years old when ISIS attacked the Yezidi heartland of Shingal, in Nineveh province. His parents were later killed and he was taken in by an Arab family from Tal Afar, who then migrated to Turkey and took Barzan with them, Abbas said.
“After medical tests his family was found and he was returned to his uncle,” he added.
ISIS took over large swathes of Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014. Iraq’s Yezidi minority was particularly targeted by ISIS, which invaded Shingal in August 2014, launching a genocide against the community. Thousands were killed and taken into captivity.
Approximately 6,418 Yezidis were kidnapped during the genocide, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Office for Abducted Yezidi Affairs. More than 3,500 have been rescued.
Several Yezidi children have been found with ISIS-linked families in Turkey.
A delegation from the Iraqi Migration and Displacement Ministry, headed by its minister Ivan Faiaq is in Turkey organizing the return of Iraqi refugees.
“193 refugees arrived back home today in Iraqi Ministry of Transportation buses,” Abbas said, “So far 8,000 Iraqi refugees have been returned back to the country from Turkey.”
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