Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein state has passed a law granting residency to Yazidis who sought refuge in the country, thereby preventing their deportation.
“Today, in the Schleswig-Holstein Parliament in Germany, as the CDU, we have decided that those who arrived here in 2014 without being granted residency should now be given this right. We are very pleased with this decision as a party,” Seyran Papo, a member of the state parliament from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), told Rudaw.
“My faction and I believe that we must not only protect these Yazidis, including women and children, but also show them a clear prospect for their future without fear of deportation,” she added.
The largest Yazidi diaspora is in Germany, numbering more than 200,000.
Last year, the German parliament (Bundestag) recognized #Islamic States# (ISIS) crimes against Yazidis as genocide. However, the government has increased its efforts to deport asylum seekers whose applications had been rejected, including some Yazidis.
“In 2023, all factions within the German parliament collectively decided to recognize the Yazidi genocide as genocide. Unfortunately, we are now seeing that some regions in Germany are once again troubling Yazidis and returning them to their homes. For this reason, we have decided to grant them permanent residency, and we hope that other regions in Germany will adopt the same decision,” Papo said.
Germany deported 222 Iraqi citizens in the first three months of 2024, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry told Rudaw earlier this year. Of those, 169 were sent back to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region and 53 went to other countries where they had been before coming to Germany.
“Without a doubt, we want to support and protect the Yazidis in our state… It is our wish that Yazidis can live safely and securely in our state and in Germany. This means halting their deportations,” Aminata Toure, minister of social affairs, youth, family, senior citizens, integration and equality for Schleswig-Holstein, told Rudaw.
Elsewhere in Germany, two Kurds, Sahap Dag and Telim Tolan, were awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the country’s president in recognition of their support for the Yazidi community in Germany for over two decades.
Speaking to Rudaw’s Diaspora program, Dag, who is also the head of the Association of the Yazidis in Lower Saxony, expressed his gratitude to the German president and people for the award and their support of the Yazidi community.
Dag also said that the Yazidis were pleased by the decision in Schleswig-Holstein.
“The recent decision of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament in Germany was heartwarming, granting residency rights to Yazidis who came to Germany after 2014, although some have still not received their residency rights,” he said.[1]