Brandenburg refuses to repatriate Yazidi family from Iraq!

Brandenburg refuses to repatriate Yazidi family from Iraq!

Today we have unfortunate news for a Yazidi family from Brandenburg. The state government has decided that there is no way to bring the deported family back from Iraq. According to René Wilke, Brandenburg's non-party interior minister, there is no legal basis for a return. The Potsdam Administrative Court had previously considered the family's deportation to be legal, despite the ongoing legal dispute.

The family in question lived in Lychen, Uckermark, for several years and consisted of two adults and four underage children. Their deportation took place on July 22, 2023, while an urgent application to lift the obligation to leave the country was still being processed. Unfortunately, the family's return to Germany was made impossible by the rejection of their asylum application by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). On the same day that they were deported, the Potsdam Administrative Court lifted the obligation to leave the country, but the deportation had already been completed.

For the family, which has been tolerated by the Uckermark immigration authority since May 2023, the toleration was granted for three months. Despite repeated tolerations, the family was legally obliged to leave the country in February 2024. Even when the Potsdam administrative court dismissed the family's lawsuit against the rejection of their asylum application as unfounded, the court did not see any individual threat or group persecution of the Yazidis by IS in Iraq.

Political pressure and public support

Politicians from the ranks of the SPD, the Greens and the Left have spoken out decisively in favor of the family's return. This speaks loudly about Germany's human and legal obligations towards the Yazidis, who have demonstrably suffered from the genocide committed by IS. In 2023, the Bundestag recognized the genocide of Yazidis and called on the federal government to urgently grant these survivors protection.

The situation for Yazidis seeking asylum in Germany appears to be getting increasingly worse. According to reports, in 2022 only 48.6% of Iraqi Yazidis who applied for asylum were granted refugee status. This is despite the fact that the Bundestag only recently classified the crimes of IS as genocide. The complexity of this issue is compounded by the fact that many Yazidis continue to live in camps for internally displaced persons and that return to their home region is almost impossible due to the deteriorating security situation in northern Iraq.

It remains to be hoped that the initiatives to bring the Yazidi family back will be successful. The desire to return is loudly expressed both by the family itself and by the school in Lychen, which is committed to their return. The family's lawyer, Kareba Hagemann, is already planning to take action against the court's decisions and address the existing threat to her clients in Iraq.

This tragic story is just part of the larger challenges facing many Yazidis. The big questions of justice and protection of the weakest members of society are now at stake, and it remains to be seen how the political landscape will respond to the ongoing needs of the Yazidis.

For further information on the situation of Yazidi refugees in Germany, please visit Borken newspaper, rbb24 as well as South German newspaper be referred.