North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister for Refugees, Josefine Paul (Green Party), has formally requested that Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) implement a nationwide suspension of deportations for Yazidi refugees originating from Iraq. In a letter, reported by the “Neue Ruhr/Neue Rhein Zeitung” Paul expresses concern that the federal government continues to approve deportations despite ongoing systematic discrimination, violence and existential threats faced by Yazidis within their home country.
The NRW Minister emphasizes that the human rights situation for Yazidis in Iraq remains “extremely difficult” a conclusion supported by the latest assessment from the Federal Foreign Office regarding the asylum and deportation-relevant situation. The letter references a previous, temporary suspension of deportations for Yazidi women and girls initiated by NRW, extended until June 2024, noting that regional legal avenues for such suspensions have now been exhausted.
A prior initiative by NRW to introduce a nationwide suspension of Yazidi deportations at the Interior Ministers’ Conference earlier this year was unsuccessful. Concerns have also been raised by refugee organizations regarding the discretionary powers exercised by local foreign authorities in NRW concerning Yazidi deportations.
Paul’s letter focuses on the “responsibility to protect these minorities” and urges Dobrindt to consider the feasibility of a national moratorium on deportations. The request follows a controversial deportation case involving a Yazidi family from Brandenburg. Despite being considered well-integrated, the family, comprised of four children, was deported in July after initially winning a legal challenge against the denial of their asylum claim, the decision finalized only after the deportation flight had commenced.
The renewed call for protection is rooted in the recognition by the German Bundestag in January 2023 of the crimes committed against Yazidis in Iraq as genocide and the subsequent call for a special protective status for Yazidi refugees. The Yazidi minority experienced particularly brutal persecution during the reign of the so-called “Islamic State”.
