A group of Yazidis who have had their asylum requests refused in Germany have been protesting for the last few weeks outside the German Agency for Refugees and Asylum (BAMF). They fear being sent back to Iraq, after a government decision decreed that anyone who has had their asylum requests refused could be returned to Iraq.

The Yazidis are a persecuted minority in the country. In January, the German government officially recognized that the persecution of Yazidis in Iraq in 2014 was genocide. However, people from Iraq can now be sent back to the country, according to new rules in Germany.

Irene Mihalic from the Green party has criticized the decision to send them back to Iraq, saying that the Yazidis still at the moment don’t have a safe place to return to.

Taken to hospital

On Monday (October 16), ten of the Yazidi protesters outside the Berlin Agency for Refugees and Asylum were taken to hospital. They had been on hunger strike since October 9. But the protest has continued, confirmed a government spokesperson at the ministry, speaking to the German Catholic news agency KNA.

Also read: Protection rate of Iraqi Yazidis falling in Germany

The protest is expected to last until December 24. About 100 people have gathered each day at the protest, reported the Protestant news agency EPD, citing police data.

According to data from BAMF, cited by EPD, fewer than half of all Iraqi Yazidis in Germany have had their asylum requests fully accepted and recognized as in need of protection. Many are still waiting for a final decision. In fact, out of 4,706 asylum requests from Iraqi Yazidis, 2,420 have received a negative response. The data came to light after a freedom of information request posed by the Linke (Left party) MP Clara Bünger.

Situation in northern Iraq continues to be 'very difficult'

Most Yazidis from Syria have been recognized as in need of protection, but since IS no longer holds power in Iraq, fewer Iraqi Yazidis have been able to claim asylum in Germany. In 2017, reports EPD, 91.8% of Yazidis received asylum protection in Germany, by 2022, that protection quota had reduced to 48.6%.

At the beginning of August, the Islamic studies specialist Gohdar Alkaldy accused the German government of lacking engagement towards the plight and situation of Yazidis in Iraq. He said the situation for Yazidis in northern Iraq continued to be "very difficult."

Also read: From 'feeling dead' to 'inner peace' traumatized Yazidis speak out in Germany

The IS is no longer in control in the region and the area of Iraq where most Yazidis lived is now free once more, only around 70,000 of the 500,000 Yazidis who had been there prior to 2014. Most of the Yazidis now present in the region live in refugee camps governed by the Kurdish regional government.

It is difficult to find official estimates of the number of Yazidis who are living in Germany. Not all of them came after the genocide in 2014, but there could be between 100,000 and 200,000 living in Germany at the moment.

With EPD and KNA