Yazidi survivors ring in new year and new life

For most of the 250 Yazidis who now live in Wagga Wagga, this was the first new year’s eve they had in peace.

Yazidi survivor Nisreen takes a photograph with Immigration Minister Peter Dutton at new year’s celebrations in Wagga Wagga yesterday. Picture: Brad Newman

For most of the 250 Yazidis who survived the Islamic State genocide in Syria and now live in the NSW regional city of Wagga Wagga, this was the first new year’s eve they had celebrated in peace.

It was also the first time they had met Immigration Minister Peter Dutton who, The Australian can reveal, issued a departmental directive to override ­refugee conventions to bring them here after he learned of their plight.

The Yazidi children had witnessed the slaughter of relatives and watched friends perish from thirst on the climb up Mount Sinjar to escape the horror.

Yet here they were, in a hall at Mount Austin public school, laughing, playing and teasing as if the world was new and annulled of the nightmares from another life now lost to the Syrian war. “I had two aunties who had nine children and growing up at special celebrations, birthdays and Christmas, it was all about family and children,” Mr Dutton told them.

“One of the things our country should be most grateful for in having the Yazidi community in Australia is that you embrace the life of children, who are the true story of the courage and sacrifices you have made.”

The minister and his wife Kirilly had flown to Wagga to attend the Yazidi new year celebrations, which fall under the ancient Eastern calendar, and meet the people saved from persecution and probable death through the efforts of two female immigration officials who had travelled to northern Iraq to find them last year.

“In our country we have invited some 825,000 refugees to live here since the Second World War,” Mr Dutton said.

“When we made the decision to welcome 12,000 people from Syria and Iraq, we wanted to make sure we welcomed those people most in need, those people who faced persecution and were most in need of generous support from Australia.

“Not all Australians would be aware of the story of the Yazidi and the genocide that has taken place. These were people who faced persecution and death.”

The Australian can reveal that the officials have gone back to Iraq in the past fortnight to interview more Yazidi women survivors of Islamic State slavery.

So far 618 visas have now been issued to the Yazidi.

Mr Dutton’s interest in the Yazidi followed reports of the Mount Sinjar massacre in 2014, when 5000 men were slaughtered and women and children taken into slavery by Islamic State.

Most Wagga residents know this story now. And many were there to help celebrate the day with them, as they danced, ate and rejoiced in their new lives.

Mike and Anne Cummins, who volunteer with St Vincent de Paul, have helped one Yazidi family find a home and their kids a school. They plan to help many more.

“They are very excited and very grateful, very grateful for the opportunities” Mr Cummins said.

“They have been through very hard times, and have seen awful atrocities ... this is a totally different world for them and we are extremely happy to have them here.”

Wagga Yazidi community spokesman Mazin Nawaf said they had never known such compassion or friendship as had been given by the community.

He said Mr Dutton’s directive to locate and resettle persecuted Christian minorities had saved hundreds of lives and allowed them a chance to live in peace for the first time.

“Most of us have arrived over the past eight months as survivors of the last genocide by the so-called Islamic States,” Mr Nawaf said. “This is the first time in their lives they are celebrating their new year’s day and their new life in freedom and happiness

“Some of the children here today were struggling to survive on Mount Sinjar. Look at them today. They are free and happy. They have become part of this Wagga community.

“On behalf of the Yazidi nation we would like to deeply thank the Australian nation.”

Wagga Multicultural Council manager Belinda Crain said her city had a long history of welcoming and settling refugees and claimed the Yazidi resettlement program was one of the great refugee success stories. “They are really driven, really motivated, I’m so pleased at how well they have adjusted, their kids are in sporting teams, they all have new friends …” she said.