Mental health of Yazidi refugees must be a ‘priority’

The mental health of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Middle East — specifically among the Yazidi community in Iraq — must be a “priority”, urged a group of charities, academics, non-government organizations and government officials.
Without supporting the mental well-being of those displaced from their homes, the prospect of successfully reintegrating or returning them to their homelands is “remote,” Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne, founder and chairperson of the UK charity Amar Foundation told a Chatham House event in London.
It was during Amar’s annual Windsor Conference this September that a series of recommendations on how to re-integrate refugees and IDPs was drawn up. And the result was a call for greater focus on mental health.
The Amar Foundation works on the ground in the Middle East with displaced people and refugees, including the Yazidis who have suffered greatly at the hands of Daesh brutality. The UN confirmed last year that Daesh has committed acts of genocide and war crimes against the Iraqi minority group.
The onslaught of the militant forces pushed many Yazidi from their homes, contributing to the total of 3.6 million IDPs in Iraq. There are also 230,800 Syrian refugees in the country.
“(The Yazidi) went through tremendous trauma — being displaced; witnessing the beheading of people, being abused; raped by many men; sold in cheap markets and witnessing death every day. All the factors that make people have psychological problems are there. That’s why they need more support,” said Dr. Nezar Ismet Taib, director-general of health for Duhok Governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, said on the sidelines of the event in London.
He said that Kurdistan cannot shoulder the financial burden of providing this support alone.
“Our short-term goal is to bring the international community to understand that Kurdistan region government with limited resources cannot continue serving all these people. We need them to step in and help us for all aspects — health, education, livelihood,” said Ismet Taib.
Other recommendations drawn up at the Windsor Conference call for the international community to recognize that refugee and IDP camps no longer provide refuge. Rather than being a temporary measure, the average time spent in a camp is 10.3 years.
Nicholson said refugee camps have become “sinkholes of misery and crime,” where a sense of acute loneliness can have a detrimental effect on well-being.
The refugee camps are contributing to a downward spiral of discontent, which could, in turn, pose further security threats to the region, she said.
The recommendations also call for the international community to break from a ‘secular’ approach and give greater consideration to the role of faith and spirituality in camps, such as faith-based mental health interventions.
It also calls for all major religions to recognize Yazidism as a world faith, a move that Nicholson said would change the wider region’s attitude toward the minority group. The Yazidis have a history of persecution and have suffered genocides before the recent attacks by Daesh.

Source: Arab News