Following the debate in Westminster Hall on 15 November and the International Development Select Committee refugee inquiry hearing, the APPG for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, in conjunction with 46 parliamentarians from across the political parties, has called on the Home Secretary to take further action to protect vulnerable Iraqi religious communities.
Recognising the current humanitarian work already underway in Iraq, they have called for Yazidis and other vulnerable religious communities to be able to receive vital psychiatric support on the ground and that the UK’s Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (SVPRS) is reassessed and extended to ensure that those particularly vulnerable and desperate to build their lives in a more stable nation are able to do so.
The APPG has received reports that while many vulnerable people, including Yazidis, are internally displaced within Iraq, thousands have already left the country and are residing within and outside UNHCR camps in Turkey and Greece. It understands that Iraqi Yazidis are being told by UNHCR that their situation is not deemed serious enough to be eligible to have help from the UK and due to their nationality they are not eligible under the SVPRS.
Some Yazidis are also being told that they must wait up to 7 years to fully register as refugees with UNHCR. The current UK SVPRS allows for 20,000 Syrians to be brought to the UK by 2020 but fails to account for the systematic persecution at the hands of Daesh of Yazidis, 90% of whom are Iraqi. The extension of the SVPRS would also resonate with the UK’s leading role in Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict.
The letter to the Home Secretary and Secretary of State for International Development in full:
17 November 2016
We welcome the Home Office’s response in the Westminster Hall debate on 15 November on taking action to protect vulnerable people within Iraq. We have, however, received reports that while many vulnerable people, including Yazidis, are internally displaced within Iraq, thousands have already left the country and are residing within and outside UNHCR camps in Turkey and Greece.
We understand that Iraqi Yazidis are being told by UNHCR that their situation is not deemed serious enough to be eligible to have help from the UK, and as I am sure you are aware, due to their nationality, are not eligible under the UK Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (SVPRS). Some Yazidis are also being told that they must wait up to 7 years to register as refugees with UNHCR. The current UK SVPRS allows for 20,000 Syrians to be resettled in the UK by 2020 but fails to account for the systematic persecution at the hands of Daesh of Yazidis, 90% of whom are Iraqi. Many of the victims of sexual violence at the hands of Daesh satisfy the vulnerability criteria of the SVPRS and are refugees in camps or in host communities registered with UNHCR.
There is also a lack of vital psychiatric support in Iraq, particularly for the women and girls who have suffered at the hands of Daesh, with only 4 psychiatrists in Northern Iraq available to help. There are additional concerns that Yazidis and others who have been sexually violated may not be accepted back into their communities as before, that they may be caught up in retaliations between communities post-Daesh and that the bespoke support needed, beyond basic humanitarian support such as psychiatric support, will be forgotten in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, including after Mosul’s liberation.
We urgently call for the UK Government departments to work together to determine how they can both provide Yazidis and other vulnerable religious minorities with adequate psychiatric support on the ground and to reassess and extend the UK’s SVPRS to ensure that those particularly vulnerable and desperate to build their lives in a more stable nation are able to do so. We urge you to specifically consider the scheme of resettlement that two regions of Germany have offered to provide the specialist care these Yazidi women and girls need. The extension of the SVPRS would also chime with the UK’s leading role in Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict.
In light of the escalating humanitarian crisis, especially around Mosul, we would very much like to meet with you, separately or together if more convenient, at your earliest convenience to discuss the way forward on these urgent issues.
Yours sincerely,
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne,
Baroness Berridge of the Vale of Catmose,
Lord Alton of Liverpool,
Lord Singh of Wimbledon,
Jim Shannon MP,
Brendan O’Hara MP,
Catherine West MP,
Alison McGovern MP,
Mike Gapes MP,
Paul Scully MP,
Jeremy Lefroy MP,
Victoria Borwick MP,
Tom Brake MP,
Stephen Timms MP,
Hywel Williams MP,
John Pugh MP,
George Howarth MP,
Gavin Shuker MP,
Jim Cunningham MP,
John Woodcock MP
Ian Murray MP,
Jeff Smith MP,
Eilidh Whiteford MP,
Adrian Bailey MP,
Sammy Wilson MP,
Rupa Huq MP,
Keith Vaz MP,
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh MP,
Tommy Sheppard MP,
Liz Saville-Roberts MP,
Natalie McGarry MP,
Martin Docherty-Hughes MP,
Ian Blackford MP,
Neil Gray MP,
Joanna Cherry MP,
Stephen Gethins MP,
Alan Brown MP,
Roger Mullin MP,
Gavin Newlands MP,
Angus Brendan MacNeil MP,
John Nicholson MP,
Carol Monaghan MP,
Margaret Ferrier MP,
Peter Grant MP,
Lisa Cameron MP,
Philippa Whitford MP