The Kurdish Community in Germany, or Kurdische Gemeinde Deutschland (KGD) on May 28 called for a nationwide ban on deportations of Yezidis.

“We appeal to the Interior Minister of Lower Saxony to impose an immediate stop to the deportation of Kurdish Yezidis. It is not acceptable to deport these women, children, and men to a region where their livelihoods have been systematically destroyed and taken away from them and which is controlled by paramilitary militias from Iraq,” the KGD said.

The Yezidi genocide perpetrated by ISIS in August 2014 in Sinjar resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, with many more being displaced to camps in the Kurdistan Region. Almost 10 years later, thousands of Yezidi women and girls are still missing.

Abschiebestopp für Jesiden in #Niedersachsen

Angesichts der prekären humanitären Lage und der extremen Gefährdung der Religionsgemeinschaft der Jesiden sowohl in der Autonomen Region Kurdistan, als auch in der Stadt und Region Shingal, fordert die Kurdische Gemeinde Deutschland,… pic.twitter.com/PuAWuIQW3G

— Kurdische Gemeinde Deutschland ☀ (@KGDOnline) May 28, 2024

“Countless members of this religious community were murdered, tortured, abducted, and raped simply because they existed. Since then, tens of thousands of people have fled abroad as a result of the Islamists' massive persecution and annihilation plans. The largest diaspora of this religious community is in Germany, and particularly in Lower Saxony and Bremen,” the KGD said.

“While North Rhine-Westphalia has ordered an immediate stop to deportations, other federal states are currently debating the status of the Yezidis. Lower Saxony and Bremen, the federal states in which the majority of the religious community's followers live and have settled, are also putting the question of the right of residence for our compatriots up for discussion.”

“Our people are concerned about increased deportations from Germany. More people are now reporting to us that they have been denied asylum or face immediate deportation,” Free Yezidi Foundation Country Director Hewan Omer told Kurdistan Chronicle.

“The majority of Yezidis in Iraq continue to live in displacement camps,” he added. “Sinjar is unstable. Yezidi areas lack infrastructure and other basic services. Yezidis continue to suffer injustice on many levels. Our people also live in collective fear of a recurrence of genocide, driven by the persistent ideology of hatred and discrimination against Yezidis, which are the root causes that lead to genocide. For all these reasons, we believe deportations of Yezidis should be stopped immediately.”

In January 2023, Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, recognized the massacre of Yezidis by ISIS as a genocide.

“That decision gave hope to Yezidis across the world, especially the Yezidi diaspora in Germany. Therefore, it is essential for the German government to review its policy toward Yezidi asylum seekers and grant them asylum,” Omer said.

In 2023, a Yezidi man deported from Germany died on the street in Erbil a day after his return.

German non-governmental organization WADI also called on Germany to stop the deportation of Yezidis in 2023.