Ottawa makes it easier for Yazidi families torn apart by ISIS violence to reunite in Canada

Canada's immigration minister has approved a new policy allowing Yazidi refugee families in this country to sponsor extended family members still languishing in camps in Syria.

The federal government's initial program aimed to resettleYazidi women and girls who were directly affected by ISIS violence, as well as their spouses, children and dependents. However, because of the volatile environment, manyrefugeesarrived in Canada with few family members joining them. This new policy extends the time frame for sponsorship and widens the eligibility criteria.

"By changing the policy to be more inclusive of extended family members, we are showing compassion,"Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said in an interview with CBC News.

He said it also shows Canada's commitment to not only having a robust asylum system, but upholding human rights around the world.

The new policy isgood news for 16-year-old Emad Tammo, who was able to join his mother and sisters in Canada in 2017.

"Iraq's not safe Killing people and stealing people like that," he said. "Lots of people ask me in Iraq and I want to help them."

His family was among the manyYazidis rounded up and captured by ISIS in northern Iraq in August 2014. Yazidis are predominantly ethnically Kurdish and follow an ancient religion that combines elements from Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam.

Many young women and girls were forcibly converted to Islamand used as sex slaves orwives for ISIS fighters. Yazidi boys who had not yet reached puberty were separated from their families and trained as child soldiers. Older boys and men who refused to convert to Islam were executed.

Thousands ofYazidis fled to Mount Sinjarnear the Iraq-Syriaborder,where they were surrounded by ISIS and denied access to food, water or medical care. Many died before arescue operationgave them safe passage.

The United Nations' Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic saysISIS's actions againstthe Yazidisamounted to genocide.

Nofa Zaghla, Tammo's mother,and her four younger children managed to escape without Tammo and his older brother and father and spent nearly a year in a Syrian refugee camp. In February 2017,they arrived in Winnipeg as government-assistedrefugees, part of the Trudeau government's commitment to settle 1,200 Yazidi refugees and ISIS survivors.

As of January 2021, Canada hadwelcomed 1,356 government-assisted refugees and 94 privately sponsored survivors all Yazidi women and girls. The $21.7-million program coveredincome support, the Interim Federal Health Program,and settlement supportssuch as language training.

Zaghla had no idea what had happened to her husband and two older sons. Then, laterthat year,photos of a dusty and emaciated Tammo began surfacing on Facebook. They were posted by Iraqi forceswho had rescued him after a battle in Mosul.

His case was expedited by the Canadian government, and within weeks, Tammo arrived in Winnipeg, to the joy of the Yazidi community.

WATCH| Tammo's reunion with his mother:

Yazidi family airport reunion

7 years ago

Duration 1:15

Video from Winnipeg and family welcoming Emad Mishko Tamo as he arrives and reunites with his family.

Still bearing scars on his side, back and stomach after being shotby ISIS, plus the psychological trauma of the experience, Tammo says he'sgrateful to be safe and with his family.

"Too long I didn't see my family," he said.

He describedthe terror of moving from location to location and resisting threats to convertto Islam and becomean ISIS fighter.

Tammosaid he believes his father was killed, but has heard his older brother is still alive in a refugee camp.

"My brother ... right now, he's alive in Iraq in the camp and I want to help him to get here, and I don't know how."

• Tearful reunion as Yazidi boy arrives in Winnipeg
• Winnipeg Yazidi refugee learns her 12-year-old son is alive after rescue from ISIS

'The clock is ticking'

Last December, the Yazidi community in Canada and more than a dozen community groups wrote a letter to Mendicino, asking for humanitarian aid for those in the refugee camps, and to fast-track applications that would reunite families.

They still haven't received a direct response, but are happy to hear news more family members will be eligible, said Jamileh Naso, president of the Canadian Yazidi Association in Winnipeg.

"They've been sitting in a refugee camp for over seven years now, and on top of this now, where they're facing a global pandemic with little to no access to health care, PPE supplies," she said.

Naso said there is an estimated 360,000 Yazidisliving in camps for internally displaced people in Syria.

"This is really life and death, and the clock is ticking."

Under the currentprograms, refugees can reunite with extended family members through the private sponsorship of refugees (PSR) program. Spouses, common-law partners and dependent childrencan also come within a year after the resettlement of their family members in Canada.

However, some ISIS survivors in this country are unable touse that program because their remaining family members are still in their native Iraq, so they don't fit the definition of a refugee and can't be sponsored.

The new policy will make those people eligible to become government-assisted refugees or privately sponsored refugees.

Independent Manitoba Sen.Marilou McPhedran, who is also a lawyer and human rights advocate, has been working on this issue for years along with several other colleagues. She read a statement on behalf of Yazidis and their supportersin the Senate in February.

"These families remain so fractured, and the incredible additional agony, emotional agony for families because of COVID, it's made the situation for refugees so much more dangerous," McPhedran said in an interview with CBC News.

"In some cases, we're still talking about children, teenagers, members of families where they need to be reunified with their families here in Canada. And we need to make it a priority."

Refugees to Canada are provided with financial support either by the federal government or their private sponsors for up to one year. After that, they can apply for social assistance, whichaligns with provincial social assistance rates.

In exceptional cases, income support can be provided for up to two years. The federal Immigration Department saysthere are currently no Yazidis still receiving federal income support from that 2017 program.

"We've got the flexibility in this policy to accommodate the demand, and certainly by expanding the parameters of the definition of family to include siblings, aunts and uncles and the like, that we will be able to fulfil the needs of the Yazidi refugee community again," Mendicino said.

Yearning for family

Tammo and his family moved from Winnipeg to London, Ont., nearly two years ago.

His mother, Nofa Zaghla, has given up hope of ever seeing her husband again, but still yearns to be reunited with her eldest son. Shesaid she has other family members living in refugee camps whom shewould also like to bring to Canada.

"We want Canada to help us to bring them," she saidin Kurdish through an interpreter. "Those people, they're gonna be lost."

WATCH | Policy change makes it easier to reunite Yazidi families in Canada:

Ottawa makes it easier to reunite Yazidi families in Canada

3 years ago

Duration 2:01

A new federal government policy makes it easier for Yazidi refugee families torn apart by ISIS violence to reunite in Canada by allowing them to sponsor family members stuck in refugee camps.

Tammo saidhe's grateful to be living a quiet life, working hard at his Grade11 courses, playing soccer when he can and doing what he can to help his brother and others still held captivein Iraq or living as refugees in Syria.

"They say it's not safe and there is no food, nothing, and all they want is to get out of the area," he said.

"Canada is not the same as Iraq. It's different. Safe."