One year later, Struggle Continues for Yazidis

Faced with the hardships of living as internally displaced persons and scarred as a community by the brutality of IS, many Yazidis, especially young people, appear to have lost hope in having a future in Iraq.

As a result they are migrating north toward Europe. The preferred destination for many is Germany, where there is a large Yazidi community estimated at around 60,000.

Standing by a wood pole outside a ramshackle shop by the entrance gate to Rwanga camp, Hazim, 19, was feeling down. Two of his close friends recently made it to Germany, and he can't stop thinking about how he can get there, too. But would-be immigrants generally must go the illegal route and are at the mercy of human traffickers who sometimes abandon them in the middle of the perilous journey across mountains, seas and woods.

"What should I stay here for?" Hazim asked. "I'll most probably end up as a restaurant or hotel employee, and even if we return home we will go back to destroyed homes and untrustworthy neighbors."

Many Yazidis have lost trust in their Muslim neighbors, as many of the neighbors collaborated with IS; unemployment is a major challenge the dispossessed and impoverished Yazidis have to deal with.

As he fans himself with a piece of thick paper, Abbas, who was a construction worker and just about managed to make ends meet before becoming an internally displaced person, lamented that he would have to try for years to get back to the point where he was before the IS attack.

"I have no job now and rely on my brother, who is a peshmerga fighter, to get by," he said. “I've tried to get a job, anything, even as a cleaner, but it's been impossible."

Many Yazidi internally displaced persons in Dahuk province, like their peers across the country, have received financial aid of around $1,000 per family from the Iraqi government and the United Nations, at least on two occasions. Mohammed said additional financial assistance will be given to the internally displaced persons in coming weeks.

In a country torn apart by conflict, tormented Yazidis are not sure what kind of homeland they would return to or just what kind of future awaits them if IS is expelled from Sinjar. For now, families such as Abbas' are patiently hoping for more assistance to make essential ends meet.