Mosul – On March 1, the Directorate of Survivors Affairs (Directorate) distributed the first salary payments promised under the Yezidi Survivors Law (YSL) to survivors of Daesh’s 2014 genocide against Iraq’s Yezidi, Shabak, Turkmen and Christian communities – two years to the day since the Law’s adoption by the Iraqi Council of Representatives.

The YSL established a framework for the provision of financial support and other forms of reparations to survivors. These include a monthly salary, a plot of land, access to health and mental health services and more. Since the application portal was launched in September of last year, 348 survivors have been verified and approved to receive reparations under the YSL.

During the distribution ceremony, which took place at the Directorate’s office in Mosul and was attended by members of the YSL Committee including Director General for Survivors Affairs, Sarab Alias Barakat, 24 survivors (21 women and 3 men, all Yezidis) received debit cards that they can now use to withdraw their monthly salaries from the Government. Such distributions will persist as the YSL Committee continues to review survivors’ applications for benefits.

“We are very happy to mark the second anniversary of the passage of the YSL by handing out these debit cards to the first group of survivors, thereby enabling them to access their monthly salaries,” said Director General Barakat. “The work of our Directorate is ongoing towards the full implementation of this landmark YSL, which stipulates reparations for survivors both male and female from the Yezidi, Shabak, Turkmen and Christian communities.”

“This is the first tangible benefit that survivors are seeing from the law, an important moment in the reparations roll-out and larger transitional justice process in Iraq,” said IOM Iraq Chief of Mission, Mr. Giorgi Gigauri. “Just as we were extensively involved in the development of the application portal, IOM will continue to support the Government of Iraq to compensate survivors to the extent possible for the losses – material, mental and physical – they sustained as a result of the genocide, and thereby better enable them to heal, return home and achieve durable solutions to their displacement.”

“Today, I feel better because I am seeing a tangible step toward the implementation of the YSL,” said Manal, a survivor from Sinjar and member of the Survivors Voices Network. “As I receive this card, I remember everything that we survivors went through at the hands of Daesh, and all the years waiting for justice. I am happy to be here today and witness this support from our government. We hope that this will be followed by the implementation of the rest of the reparations provided for in the law.”

IOM continues to work with the Directorate to strengthen its capacity to implement the YSL, including through capacity building, technical guidance, material assistance and outreach among survivors, affected communities and the general public. This programming is made possible by support from the governments of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Survivors can apply to receive benefits under the YSL by submitting an application directly through the Directorate’s online portal, or by scheduling an in-person meeting at the Directorate’s main office in Mosul or any of its branch office locations and submitting an application during the meeting with the Directorate’s staff.

For more information, please contact:

IOM Iraq’s Public Information Unit, iraqpublicinfo@iom.int

Sarah Gold at IOM Iraq, sgold@iom.int