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Women and children leaving a gate of Erbil International Airport. Photo: Nadia's Initiative social media
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A reported 151 Yezidi women and children who were victims of Islamic State (ISIS) persecution arrived in France from Erbil on Thursday evening, in a partial fulfillment of a commitment made by French President Emmanuel Macron to provide refuge to members of the ethnoreligious community in October 2018.
France’s Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that they would be taking in 31 Yezidi women and their families, as part of continued commitment to welcoming Yezidi survivors to France.
“Today, Thursday 8 August 2019, France is taking in 31 Yezidi women who were victims of Daesh [so-called ISIS], together with their children,” read a joint statement from France’s Foreign and Interior ministries.
Nadia’s Initiative, a non-profit organization founded by Yezidi genocide survivor and Nobel peace laureate Nadia Murad in 2016 to advocate for Yezidis community and victims of sexual violence, confirmed the arrival of 151 women and children in Toulouse, southwestern France in a Facebook post on Thursday evening.
“We are incredibly thankful to the French government for their continuous support of the Yezidi community,” it added.
The women and children were flown out of Iraq from the Kurdistan Region’s Erbil International Airport. Transportation was organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and funded by France, according to the French statement.
The arrival of the Yezidi group was described by the ministry as a “follow-up” to the arrival in France of two other groups of Yezidi families: 16 families in December 2018, and 28 families in May 2019.
Kurdistan Regional Government representative to France Ali Dolamari told Rudaw on Thursday that one more group of Yezidis is due to arrive in France in 2019.
Yezidis were a particular target of ISIS violence when their militants took over swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, including the Yezidi heartland in and around Shingal. Thousands of women are believed to have been kidnapped and subjected to years of sexual slavery.
“These women, who suffered especially badly from the terrorist organization’s atrocities, are being cared for in various French departments [regions]. Thanks to the support of several state services, France is providing them with protection, security, education and medical-social support,” added the statement.
Psychological support will also be allocated to the survivors, Dolamari told Rudaw.
French President Emmanuel Macron received Nadia Murad, in late October 2018 at the Elysee Palace in Paris, where she pressed for increased assistance for Yezidi survivors, including allowing Yezidi families to settle in France.
The process of taking in Yezidi survivors by the French government was described by the ministry statement as a “fulfillment” of the “commitment” Macron had made to Murad.
ISIS persecution of Yezidis has led to the exodus of an estimated 100,000 of Iraq’s 500,000 Yezidis, while another 360,000 remain internally displaced.
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