Baghdad’s airport ban on Kurdistan affected hundreds of Ezidis bound for Canada

The Canadian government missed its target to resettle 1,200 Ezidis and other survivors of the Islamic State (IS) before the end of 2017 because of the flight ban on Erbil.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Some two-hundred Yezidis (Ezidis) refugees were unable to travel to Canada due to the Baghdad-imposed international flight ban on the Kurdistan Region’s airports.

According to Ottawa-based CBC News, the Canadian government missed its target to resettle 1,200 Ezidis and other survivors of the Islamic State (IS) before the end of 2017 because of the flight ban on Erbil.

According to figures from Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada (IRCC), the department issued just over 1,200 visas to government-sponsored survivors, but as of Dec. 31, 2017, only 981 had arrived in Canada.

Another 64 arrived through private sponsorship, but the IRCC also confirmed that Canada would end the program will end once the rest of the 1,200 are resettled.

“While the department will not be receiving any new applications under this initiative, the remaining survivors of IS who are currently in process, will continue to arrive in Canada in early 2018,” said Faith St. John, an IRCC spokesperson.

Ties between Erbil and Baghdad have considerably deteriorated following the Kurdistan Region’s Sep. 25 independence referendum, which saw an overwhelming majority vote for statehood.

The Iraqi government has since imposed a series of collective punitive measures on Kurdistan, including banning international flights to the Region’s airport.

IRCC said the flight ban caused delays because travel documents, exit permits, and itineraries had been prepared based on the Erbil airport. Transporting people to another airport required additional and different documentation, which took weeks and, in some cases, months to complete.

Hadji Hesso, co-founder of the Canadian Yazidi Association, also called it a "big disappointment" to learn the Canadian government would not be taking more applications, saying he had hoped the 2017 target would be doubled to 2,400 people in 2018 to continue helping Ezidis.

Following the occupation of the Ezidi-populated city of Sinjar (Shingal) in 2014, IS kidnapped thousands of people, mostly women, and children, and executed the men. The crimes committed against the Ezidi people have been recognized as a genocide by many countries and the UN.

Many Ezidis have been rescued so far, but the whereabouts of over three thousand more remain unknown.

There are roughly one million Ezidis worldwide, with most of them residing in the Kurdistan Region. Following the rise of IS in 2014, hundreds of thousands of Ezidis were displaced to the areas controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) while others moved abroad.

Most continue to live in temporary shelters as Shingal, now under the control of the Iranian-backed Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militia since the Iraqi forces-led attack on disputed territories in October 2017, was almost completely destroyed and remains unsafe.