North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister for Refugees, Josefine Paul (Green Party), has formally requested a nationwide suspension of deportations for Yazidi refugees originating from Iraq. In a letter addressed to Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) and reported by the “Neue Ruhr/Neue Rhein Zeitung” Minister Paul expresses concern that the federal government continues to permit deportations despite ongoing “systematic discrimination, violence and existential threats” faced by Yazidis within their homeland.
The letter highlights the precarious human rights situation for Yazidis in Iraq, a point reinforced by recent reports from the Federal Foreign Office concerning the asylum and deportation-relevant conditions in the region. Minister Paul references a previous suspension of deportations put in place by North Rhine-Westphalia in December 2023, initially for Yazidi women and girls and subsequently extended to June 2024. She notes that the state’s legal options for maintaining such a suspension have now been exhausted.
An earlier attempt by North Rhine-Westphalia to secure a nationwide deportation ban for Yazidis at a recent Interior Ministers Conference was unsuccessful. Concerns have also been raised by refugee organizations regarding the discretionary powers exercised by municipal foreign affairs offices, even within North Rhine-Westphalia, in relation to Yazidi deportations.
Minister Paul’s letter emphasizes a “responsibility to protect these minorities” and urgently requests the Federal Interior Minister to evaluate the feasibility of implementing a nationwide moratorium on deportations.
The renewed push for a deportation ban follows a particularly contentious incident involving the deportation of a Yazidi family from Brandenburg. Despite having previously successfully challenged a rejection of their asylum claim, the family, described as well-integrated, was deported in July after the deportation flight had already commenced.
The Yazidi minority suffered particularly brutal persecution during the reign of the “Islamic State” and the German Bundestag formally recognized the crimes perpetrated against them in Iraq as genocide in January 2023, advocating for a special protection status for Yazidi refugees.