The Interior Ministry of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has promised to employ Ezidi survivors as police personnel within the framework of the Erbil-Baghdad agreement, which stipulates the forming of a 2,500 strong security force for the district.
The promise came after a group of Ezidi women who had been captives of ISIS visited KRG officials, among them officials of the Interior and Peshmerga ministries.
The Ezidi survivors have been trying to find work and find opportunities outside life in the camps.
A member of the delegation is Adiba Murad Milko, who has been living in Mam-Rashan camp in Duhok since she escaped the clutches of ISIS militants on 22 March 2019. She told KirkukNow: “One of the purposes of our group is finding job opportunities for the women survivors.”
One of the purposes of our group is finding job opportunities for the women survivors
Since its formation, the group has met with many officials, including the Peshmerga Minister, KRG’s Minority Affairs Minister, members of the High Women Committee, deputy speaker of Iraqi Parliament and the KRG Interior Minister.
“We have conveyed the requests of those who have survived ISIS to all of them. The interior minister has promised us to employ a number of the survivors as police personnel under the Iraqi interior ministry. And to that end, we have submitted our information to the Shingal Administration Council in Duhok,” Milko said.
“The Ezidi survivors are looking for jobs and don’t want to remain inside the camps without work. That’s why employing some of them as personnel of the Internal Police is a good opportunity. We need jobs to make a living,” Milko added.
Dauwd Murad Khatari, spokesman for an organization representing families of Ezidi victims, told KirkukNow: “The women who survived ISIS captivity have suffered the most, yet not much has been done for them so far.”
The women who survived ISIS captivity have suffered the most, yet not much has been done for them
Of the 2,500 force, 1,500 will be hired from IDPs from Shingal, most of whom currently reside in camps in Duhok.
“I don’t think the women and girls who have survived ISIS captivity are capable of doing that job, because their mental condition is not that well and cannot endure the training,” Khatari said.
He therefore suggests they should be hired for administrative jobs instead.
Hala Safeel, who has escaped ISIS captivity three years ago and doesn’t know the fate of her parents and her three brothers, now works as a cleaner to provide for herself and her sister. She thinks that working as police is not suitable for the survivors.
She told KirkukNow: “After all the abuse committed by ISIS, the survivors are not able to train, that’s why I will not be registering myself.”
