Iraq begins compensation program for Yazidi survivors of ISIS

The Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has begun distributing monthly compensation to over 2,300 Kurdish Yazidi women and girls who survived ISIS captivity, under Law No. 8 enacted in March 2021, Rudaw reported.

Each eligible survivor receives 800,000 Iraqi dinars (about $565) as part of a national effort to support Yazidi survivors of ISIS atrocities.

Sarab Elias, director of Yazidi Survivors Affairs, emphasized the significance of this step in delivering justice after years of suffering. The law covers Yazidis regardless of their current residence, with 150 applications submitted from abroad and 120 cases already interviewed via remote video conferences conducted by Iraqi judges.

ISIS’s brutal assault on the Yazidi community in Sinjar in August 2014 resulted in the abduction of 6,417 Yazidi women and children, many subjected to sexual slavery. Approximately 2,590 Yazidis remain missing, and around 200,000 were displaced, many living in camps in the Kurdistan Region.

The United Nations has recognized the ISIS campaign against Yazidis as genocide.