Yazidis in Germany...thousands of asylum requests and fears of being deported to Iraq

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[size=52]Yazidis in Germany...thousands of asylum requests and fears of being deported to Iraq[/size]

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Shihab Samouqi
01/03/2024
The European “Migrant Info” website, which specializes in immigrant news, raised the issue of the increasing difficulties facing Yazidi immigrants coming from Iraq, in light of the secret agreement that the German government concluded with the Iraqi government to facilitate the return of immigrants, while the German authorities are still receiving... Thousands of immigration applications from Yazidis annually so far.[/size]
[size=45]In this context, the European website presented, in a report, the case of the immigrant Shihab Samouki (21 years old), who says that he fears for his life if he is returned to Iraq, after Germany rejected his asylum request, as he has been residing in the city of Hamburg for several years, after... He fled his hometown of Şengal due to the persecution to which the Yazidis were subjected.[/size]
[size=45]The report indicated that Samouki’s story appears to be a bureaucratic nightmare: Germany rejected his asylum application twice, once as an asylum seeker, and another time to obtain a work permit, and when his first application was rejected in 2021, he was given only 30 days to leave Germany. But he resorted to a court to stop his deportation procedures, and when in September 2023 he submitted a new request for asylum, it was also rejected.[/size]
[size=45]The report continued that all of this may not be compared to the nightmare he may face if he is actually forced to return to his original country, as he says, “Sooner or later, I will face the risk of being killed, either through another genocide in Iraq or in the midst of conflicts between various groups.” “According to his opinion.”[/size]
[size=45]The report indicated that Smouki's protection status, which was issued in 2021 when Iraq was still classified as an unsafe country, will now expire next February, which means that this young Yazidi may once again be exposed to the threat of deportation.[/size]
[size=45]The report quoted Samouki as saying, “Three years of building the future here in Germany, my bachelor’s degree in computer science, mastery of the German language, my job as a consultant, and a master’s degree in financial management and accounting, are all now in danger.”[/size]
[size=45]The report pointed out that Samouki began a new life with his family in Hamburg after a terrifying journey across land and sea from Iraq to Turkey, where he crossed through Greece and made his way to Germany via the Balkans, escaping “persecution” in Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]The report quoted Samouki as saying, “I had one hope, that I would go to a country that would respect me and my religion, and I would hope that it would protect me and my family from those who hate the Yazidis.”[/size]
[size=45]However, the report stated that the recent rejection of his asylum request comes at a time when the German government is strengthening its efforts to return asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected, with a special focus on Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]The report continued, saying that in order to achieve this goal, Germany believes it has entered into a secret agreement with the Iraqi government to work more with it in returning migrants, an agreement that affects the Yazidis, who continued to enjoy protection in Germany until recently.[/size]
[size=45]The report pointed out that Germany's rejection of these asylum requests comes despite the fact that it is urgently seeking to obtain more skilled workers to join its workforce, which leads to raising more questions about this decision.[/size]
[size=45]After the report reviewed some details about the history of the Yazidi minority and their beliefs in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, and the asylum of many of them to Europe, specifically to Germany, to escape the crimes of the terrorist organization ISIS, which the United Nations, and German representatives also described, as tantamount to crimes of genocide, the report said that the threat against Yazidis: “Persecution and genocide fuel migration factors.”[/size]
[size=45]The report explained that from January to September 2023, Yazidis in Germany submitted approximately 4,000 asylum applications, according to figures from the Office of Immigration and Refugees, while it is believed that about 2,900 of those who submitted applications are from Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]The report stated that the “Bundestag” (the German House of Representatives) had promised to work more seriously to protect the Yazidis in Germany, but the situation is not clear now, as deportations to Iraq are on the rise, adding that on December 18, the state of North Germany's Rhine-Westphalia is the first state to stop deporting Yazidis, and the only one so far.[/size]
[size=45]The report quoted the Minister of Refugee Affairs in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Josephine Paul, as saying, “From the point of view of the (German) Foreign Ministry, the Iraqi government is not in a position to guarantee the protection of religious minorities in many areas.”[/size]
[size=45]The report pointed out that Minister Paul was pressing to stop the deportations of Yazidis at the German national level, but to no avail so far.[/size]
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