Yazidi refugees languish in policy spat after IS attacks
AGIOS ATHANASIOS, Greece — As a member of a persecuted minority in Iraq, 24-year-old Shaker Mahie has seen his people massacred, raped and scattered across a new continent. Now, the Yazidi — whose faith is older than Christianity — are at the centre of a new European dilemma.
Portugal has offered to take in several hundred of the 2,500 Yazidi refugees living in Greece, arguing that their mistreated community merits special protection. Athens has rejected the offer, worried that other countries might start cherry-picking asylum applications based on religion or ethnicity.
Does that make the Yazidis victims of discrimination or nondiscrimination? It’s a question that could be keeping some of them in limbo.
Ana Gomes, a European Parliament member from Portugal who has been an outspoken advocate of the resettlement proposal, says Greek concerns are misplaced. Yazidis, she noted, were targeted for slaughter by Islamic State militants at home and face ongoing harassment from fellow Iraqis stranded in migrant camps.