\u201cI\u2019m 22 years old,\u201d said Saad Salih, a Yazidi refugee from the Sinjar district in Northwest Iraq, \u201cand I have never gone to school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salih arrived illegally in Germany about 5 months ago, after finally escaping the Yazidi genocide by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Sinjar in 2014. Now, he\u2019s trying to educate himself and rebuild his life in Germany while facing the risk of deportation.<\/p>\n
According to Salih, he is one of over 50,000 Yazidis in Germany facing the risk of deportation. Over 30,000 Yazdis have already been issued official deportation orders by the German government, leaving them with no formal access to education or work opportunities. \u201cThe future of Yazidis [in Germany] is uncertain; Germany is deporting us because they think Sinjar is not a war zone anymore, but simultaneously it is strongly encouraging its own citizens to leave [Iraq] promptly because of instability caused by active militias…the same militias that Germany acknowledged<\/a> are committing genocide against the Yazidis!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was 13 years old, the Islamic State attacked my village,\u201d Salih said. \u201cI lost everything then: my childhood, my friends, members of my family; they took my brothers,\u201d he pauses, \u201cfor 9 years I didn\u2019t know if they were alive.\u201d In August 2014 ISIS forces conquered Salih\u2019s hometown Sinjar \u2014 the ancestral homeland of the Yazidis \u2014 and declared an Islamic Caliphate in the region, explains Professor David Simon, Director of the Genocide Studies Program (GSP) at Yale University. \u201cTo ISIS, the Yazidis are infidels,\u201d says Professor Simon, \u201cand in their minds this justifies violence toward the Yazidi people; they killed thousands of men and sold thousands of women into sex slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are killed just for our beliefs,\u201d says Salih with sadness in his eyes, \u201cwhich most people misunderstand!\u201d A revered figure in Yazidism is Taw\u00fbs\u00ee Melek, a fallen angel forgiven and returned to heaven by God. But \u201cpeople mistakenly identify Taw\u00fbs\u00ee Melek with the figure of Shaytan (or Satan)\u201d in Judeo-Christian tradition, says Salih. For this reason, the Yazidis have been deemed \u201cdevil worshippers,\u201d making them a target for religious persecution historically. \u201cISIS attacks on Yazidis are, in fact, genocidal.\u201d says Professor Simon. \u201cUnfortunately, 2014 wasn\u2019t the first, but the 73rd time the Yazidis have faced genocide in their history.\u201d<\/p>\n Like many undocumented Yazidi asylum seekers, Salih cannot attend school or seek employment in Germany because of his \u201cillegal\u201d immigration status. But \u201cI don\u2019t just want to sit around and do nothing all day,\u201d Salih says as he unzips his backpack to reveal books he is currently reading. For 9 years of his life, all Salih had was a cellphone, internet when he\u2019s lucky, a few pairs of clothes, and the resolve to go somewhere he can find an education. \u201cEvery child should get the chance to go to school; education is a human right,\u201d said Salih. Over the past three years, Salih has taught himself some \u201cbasic math and English by watching YouTube videos and reading online,\u201d he says humbly. \u201cNothing can stop him from learning,\u201d says his friend Shireen T\u00f4hildan, \u201che loves it [and] he is so smart he does it all on his own!\u201d Now, Salih is teaching himself German and basic coding in Python, even though he does not have a computer or formal access to language classes.<\/p>\n In response to deportation orders issued by the government, a group of Yazidi refugees organized a hunger strike outside the Reichstag Building, home to the German parliament, where Salih volunteered to be a translator. \u201cI know some German but now I cannot go to German class, so I cannot work, because I\u2019m [facing] deportation,\u201d said Omar Zaidi, a Yazidi asylum seeker who just received a deportation order. Yazidis all over Germany are receiving deportation notices, and as a result their now \u201cillegal\u201d immigration status bars them from taking German classes or working. Many at the protest resonated that this was a major struggle in rebuilding their lives in Germany. Some Yazidis have received notices that give them a deadline to leave the country, while others have received notices without specified deadlines leaving them in limbo.<\/p>\n \u201cIn January [2023], the German government passed a memo<\/a> recognizing the 2014 massacre of Yazidis by ISIS to be a genocide, but now the government is deporting us to the same place we are facing the genocide?\u201d says Salih. \u201cI\u2019m not Iraqi, I am Yazidi. No one in Iraq care[s] about us, the government persecutes us, ISIS kills us, if I go back I will die,\u201d says Firaz Sha, a Yazidi asylum seeker protesting his deportation order at the hunger strike. Professor Simon concurs with Ahmed\u2019s assessment that Sinjar is not safe for return yet, despite the \u201cannounced withdrawal\u201d of ISIS fighters in 2019. \u201cThe special risk factors for genocide pre-2019 the Yale GSP mentioned in its 2019 report<\/a> still persist in Sinjar today,\u201d says Professor Simon, \u201cit is not safe for Yazidis to return.\u201d Martin Sichert, a member of the AfD (Alternative for Germany) party in the German parliament, acknowledging the strikers claim that the Yazidis continue to face genocide in Iraq said, \u201cwe are deporting the wrong people.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about his future in Germany, Salih said his only hope for a future comes from educating himself and others. \u201cI want to learn so that someday I can get a job and my work can help people; I want to help the Yazidi people, the German people, and most of all I want to teach the children like me who couldn\u2019t go to school,\u201d says Salih. \u201cI don\u2019t just aspire to live in Germany, I aspire to make a difference here!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI\u2019m 22 years old,\u201d said Saad Salih, a Yazidi refugee from the Sinjar district in Northwest Iraq, \u201cand I have never gone to school.\u201d Salih arrived illegally in Germany about 5 months ago, after finally escaping the Yazidi genocide by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Sinjar in 2014. Now, he\u2019s trying<\/p>\n