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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Poverty, instability, and unemployment have driven more than 120,000 Yazidis to take illegal and dangerous routes to Europe ever since 2014, following the brutal genocide campaign committed at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS), according to the Yazidi affairs office in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Esiyan village is one of the areas that has seen a massive share of the influx of Yazidi migration abroad.
Half of the residents of the Esiyan village, located in Sheikhan town, have left their areas in the course of the past few years and immigration from Iraq is a hot topic among the remaining villagers.
Sheikhan is a predominantly Yazidi town that is less than 50 kilometers in northern Nineveh province.
"According to a census in 2014, there were 800 registered individuals. The number has now dropped to only 390 and the rest have migrated abroad," said Haytham Hassan, a teacher in the village.
Scores of people, mainly youth, from across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq take to smuggling routes on a daily basis out of desperation, in hopes of escaping the endless crises in the country, including the lack of employment, political instability, and corruption.
Nizar Dawood, who is the chieftain of Esiyan village said he has paved the way for several of his children to move abroad in search of a better life.
"My brothers live abroad, my sisters live abroad, two of my sons live abroad," Dawood told Rudaw.
He went on to add: "One of my sons was ill and had no access to treatment here...."
The elderly man says he will send another son abroad, citing a lack of job opportunities.
"I am now planning to send another son who is married abroad."
Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis fled their homes in the summer of 2014 when ISIS seized control of their homeland, seeking shelter on Mount Shingal, and then in the Kurdistan Region with a limited number resettled in Europe and North America.
Esiyan village is one of the areas that has seen a massive share of the influx of Yazidi migration abroad.
Half of the residents of the Esiyan village, located in Sheikhan town, have left their areas in the course of the past few years and immigration from Iraq is a hot topic among the remaining villagers.
Sheikhan is a predominantly Yazidi town that is less than 50 kilometers in northern Nineveh province.
"According to a census in 2014, there were 800 registered individuals. The number has now dropped to only 390 and the rest have migrated abroad," said Haytham Hassan, a teacher in the village.
Scores of people, mainly youth, from across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq take to smuggling routes on a daily basis out of desperation, in hopes of escaping the endless crises in the country, including the lack of employment, political instability, and corruption.
Nizar Dawood, who is the chieftain of Esiyan village said he has paved the way for several of his children to move abroad in search of a better life.
"My brothers live abroad, my sisters live abroad, two of my sons live abroad," Dawood told Rudaw.
He went on to add: "One of my sons was ill and had no access to treatment here...."
The elderly man says he will send another son abroad, citing a lack of job opportunities.
"I am now planning to send another son who is married abroad."
Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis fled their homes in the summer of 2014 when ISIS seized control of their homeland, seeking shelter on Mount Shingal, and then in the Kurdistan Region with a limited number resettled in Europe and North America.
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