Reaching the most vulnerable: the plight of minorities in the Middle East.

Feb 15, 2016 by Andrew Symes

By Dr Russell Blacker, The National Caucus for the Persecuted Church.

On 27 January 2016 a number of NGOs, experts, and advocates met Parliamentarians at a meeting sponsored by MPs David Burrowes and Derek Thomas, chaired by Lord David Alton and Baroness Caroline Cox.

Entitled “ Reaching the most vulnerable ” the speakers were: Lord David Alton, Baroness Caroline Cox, Canon Andrew White and Dr Sarah Ahmed (FRRME), Dr Wael Aleji (Syrian Network for Human Rights, and Syrians for Peace), Mark Green (Barnabas Fund), Major General Tim Cross, Gerard Russell, Andy Darmoo (ACERO), Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Church, Dr John Newton (A.C.N.), Ahmed Khudida and Maher Nawaf (Yazidi representatives) and Professor Michelle Brown.

The following is an executive summary of the main findings:

The Christians Yazidis and other religious minorities in the ME are undergoing Genocide as referred to by Pope Francis, Ban Ki Moon, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Marc Rubio and – now – the European Council and European Parliament. A month ago Lord Alton and 75 Parliamentarians wrote a letter to Gov’t calling for this Genocide to be recognised and there are two EDMs – proposed by Stephen Twigg and Rob Flello – on the same issue now before Parliament to which 46 MPs have so far their names. Lord Alton, Baroness Cox, Baroness Nicholson and Lord Forsyth also proposed an amendment to the Immigration Bill to allow for automatic asylum to the victims of Genocide; the Gov’t resisted the amendment but it is hoped to move it again further down the line.

Although atrocities are also occurring towards Sunni and Shia combatants and civilians (see Feb 2016 UN report “Out of sight, out of mind”) what makes those against the Christians and Yazidis a Genocide is the specific targeting of these two groups (by both Sunni and Shia militias – not just Daesh) with the explicit and stated aim of removing them from the Middle East – an intent which is regularly proclaimed via various media and ‘justified’ by reference to religious texts which are endorsed by senior Imams. Sheikh Dr Muhammad Al Hussaini, present at the meeting, called on the attendees to recognise the Wahabist Salafist agenda which is to remove all religions from the Middle East except one. This Genocide is a campaign shared by many operators – not just Daesh fighters – which places particular responsibility on diplomatic initiatives to ensure that humanitarian concerns are not sacrificed to profitable arms, energy, and investment deals.

The various speakers calling for this Genocide to be recognised refer to the systematic dispossession, abduction, forced conversion, dhimmitude, destruction of manuscripts religious artefacts and church buildings, rape, enslavement, the removal of children and youths (either for sexual purposes or for training as ISIS fighters), and repeated acts of torture, beheadings, shootings, burnings and other assassinations of the ‘infidels’. Since much of this has occurred behind Daesh lines the scale of the carnage is only now emerging – in the form of mass graves and reports from escapees.

Some female slaves are also being sold abroad to other Muslim countries – the going rate being between $50 and $175 pp. There is a clear opportunity for diplomatic pressure to be brought to bear on those States who are recognised as participating in these sales and in many other instances of modern slavery.

It remains to be seen how Her Majesty’s Government and other signators to the 1948 Genocide Convention respond to these calls for recognition of the Genocide of Christians and Yazidis – and how the EU resolution will influence the distribution of International Aid, Visa allocations, and Political and Diplomatic support. Hitherto the Christian and Yazidi IDPS and refugees have fared particularly badly when compared with the majority faith group. Much is made in the DFID [Department for International Development] summary and the recent Syrian Donors Conference about “reaching the most vulnerable” but this appears not to include the Minority-victims of Genocide and, despite repeated appeals to DFID, the Christians have been supported entirely by local churches, supported in turn by Christian-specific NGOs.

It is feared that calls for the Genocide to be recognised will be resisted by some Western powers (and the UN) because it would oblige those powers to actually do something. Merely overcoming Daesh or even Al Nusra forces will not end the Genocide which is also proceeding in Iraq and Turkey. As Mark Green writes “It is a historical fact that past incidents of genocide have largely been ignored or passed by with little more than retrospective handwringing. This was the case with the five most notable clear-cut cases of genocide in the 20th century:- Rwanda in 1994, the Balkans in the 1990s, Cambodia 1975-79, the Nazi Holocaust, and the Armenian Genocide. It is notable that 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the height of the Armenian genocide, a genocide which some members of NATO continue to deny, and on which Hitler is supposed to have remarked “Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?”

At Parliament the Yazidis and Christian NGOs presented their evidence that the loss of their homes businesses and homeland is irretrievable; unlike Muslims they have no safe and secure place to go to across the ME [Middle East] – or where they can work, send their children to school, be free of discrimination and persecution, and their human rights upheld. The Yazidis are not even recognised as a religious group by many States in the ME!

Powerful ideological influences which have swept across the ME mean that there is no prospect of safety and security for the religious minorities for the foreseeable future; military analysts believe that it will take decades for peace to return to the region.

These same ideological issues which underpin the persecution in the ME are now being enacted globally at the hands of other Islamist militias; all the indications are (Open Doors, CSW etc) that this persecution is set to spread through Africa, Asia and South East Asia. A Genocide is already underway in Sudan and northern Nigeria (Baroness Cox).

In the light of this, Major General Tim Cross asked “Who is leading on developing a secure strategy for the region?” He showed that the problem of ideological extremism and associated terrorism extends considerably beyond ISIS and the Syrian war – and far beyond the Middle East: “there is a globalisation of threat” which western Governments urgently need to recognise, articulate, and address.

The desire to escape the strictures of radical Islam have also led millions of people, including Muslims, to flee their countries and there are now 60 million people displaced worldwide – more than in any time in history. Not all of these are in response to religious extremism, but directly or indirectly radical Islam is one of the most potent causes of mass migration – a matter which is still being sidestepped by western politicians who lack religious literacy and/or are terrified of “getting it wrong” (Gerard Russell).

Over 1 million migrants have now crossed into Europe – over 36,175 in January alone, of whom around 250 have lost their lives at sea or died of hypothermia; however, only 20% of those registering for asylum in Europe are from Syria. Many other countries – including Eritrea, Nigeria, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh – countries where radical Islam influences society – are heavily represented.

Baroness Cox gave a masterly presentation of the situation in Sudan and northern Nigeria. In Sudan H.A.R.T. are the only NGO operating in the Blue Nile area. In Nigeria 43,000 people have been killed by Boko Haram, 2.5m displaced, hundreds of teachers killed and over a million children now without schooling.

Reluctance by western Gov’ts to refer to these and similar atrocities as Genocide and to apply appropriate political and diplomatic pressure, effectively consigns hundreds of thousands of people to continued suffering, it prevents opportunities for reconciliation and healing (Baroness Cox, Canon Andrew White), and it encourages the perpetrators to continue their destruction knowing that their victims are “unprotected” and that they will never be asked to answer for their crimes (General Cross, Ahmed Khudida and other speakers).

The likely ‘Balkanisation’ of the ME will pose severe challenges for religious minorities who currently lack political recognition and support and who face a very uncertain future. The failure to invite Church Leaders and other representatives of these minorities to the recent Syrian Donors Conference is a warning to Christians and Yazidis that Western Gov’ts do not have their survival on their agenda. This oversight is doubly unfortunate because Christians have historically been the mediators, educationalists, doctors, and publishers etc – disciplines essential to the rebuilding of Syria. Moreover, the Churches and NGOs (Aid to the Church in Need, Barnabas Fund and AMAR) have already built and are running many mixed-faith schools for refugees and IDPs which was one of the main themes of the Donors Conference.

This oversight probably reflects a poor grasp of the role of religion in the ME. Major General Cross and Bishop Angaelos explained how “religion matters” in the ME – that there is no split between religion and identity. Gerard Russell and Baroness Warsi referred to the problem of religious illiteracy within Gov’t and diplomatic services; the Foreign Office is trying to correct this although, as far as the Yazidi and Christian representatives are concerned, no benefits have been demonstrable to date.

The Syrian Donors conference was welcome and noble effort and the sponsors were right to focus on matters concerning living conditions, employment and schooling; the generous pledges and the equally generous UK aid to date is also highly commendable. However, there are good reasons for Christians and Yazidis to fear that they will continue to be bypassed by UNHCR / DFID and their chosen partners.

The NGOs represented at the Parliamentary meeting, together with Open Doors International, between them are supporting over 330,000 Christian IDPs and refugees – entirely on the basis of private donations much of which comes from the UK. No support has come from the major International Aid agencies the reason for which is unclear. In addition, around 50% (n = 250,000) of the surviving Yazidis are being supported by AMAR and other NGOs.

Recognising their long history of hundreds of years of discrimination, persecution, successive massacres, and Genocides, plus the continuing lack of security and long-term ideological threats, many ME Christians have now abandoned hope of remaining in the region. In countries such as Iraq 80% of the Christians have already left, and many of the remainder are seeking to do so by making the hazardous trek into Europe. Many religious leaders have now pointed to the virtual extinction of Christianity in its heartland – but this appears not to bother Western secularist regimes. It will, however, prove fatal for the remaining Muslim populations since there will be no mediators – and no pluralism to resist the slide into further radicalisation and intolerance.

Violence in Syria has now driven more 4.2 million refugees out of the country whilst an additional 7.6 million people are displaced within Syria’s borders, according to UNHCR. The vast majority of these refugees are not in Europe:- over 2.5 million of them are in Turkey, 1.17 million in Lebanon, 664,000 in Jordan, 288,000 in Iraq, and 118,000 in Egypt. An unknown number are in Iran and we are trying to find out about their conditions. 149,000 refugees originally from Iraq are thought to still be in Syria.

Many thousands more are likely to become refugees over the next few months because of continuing conflict, evaporating hopes for peace, poor living conditions, inability to work, lack of access to schooling, a massive funding shortfall for UNHCR and the World Food Programme, the falling reserves of the supporting Churches and NGOs, and the combined effects of loss and traumatisation. Lord Alton writes “Forcing people to sign a covenant not to work in return for residency (as in Lebanon) may protect the jobs of local people, but does nothing for the self-respect of the refugees. And who can survive – or feed their children – without money? Who can then afford medical services, in countries like Jordan, when access to free healthcare is lost? What do you do about your children when hundreds of thousands of them are denied an education?”.

UNHCR is primarily concerned with refugees; however – and as presented by all the NGOs – Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are often no better off than those within the UNHCR system. The International Aid system is not geared to helping IDPs. Many of the Christians and Yazidis are IDPs and urban refugees. Those Christians who are refugees avoid the UNHCR camps and aid dispensaries – and many (not all) also avoid the registration units because of reported discrimination, persecution and jihadist activity. This is the “double persecution” referred to by MP David Burrowes.

In the light of this, to claim (pace DFID) that the failure to get Aid to Christians is “their fault for not using the system” or for not registering with UNHCR, is highly disingenuous. However, the situation is worse than this: even where Christians are eligible for registration (Dr John Newton and Mark Green) UNHCR, despite being invited to attend and register Christians in Lebanon for example, failed to do so!

So-called non-discrimination policies have actually ensured a high level of discrimination against religious minorities as shown by the very low proportion of Christians and Yazidis who have been offered visas and asylum. This is present on an international level with the US and UK performing particularly badly. Many more Christians could be resettled if EU pressure was removed from countries such as Hungary Latvia Slovakia Austria Poland and Romania who have expressed a wish to take these ‘most vulnerable’ Christians.

To assist Christians who wish to leave the region and to protect them from attempting the dangerous journey on foot, three private resettlement initiatives are underway – Operation Safe Havens, the Weidenfeld Fund and Mercury One (Mark Green – Barnabas Fund). Between them these programmes have been able to relocate many hundreds of Christians to various host countries (e.g. Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland etc). Similar schemes are being proposed for Yazidis and for LGBT people (‘All Out’).

In comparison, UNHCR take unacceptably long to process applications for resettlement: the Assyrians were originally informed that they would wait 2 years – this week they were informed that the time scale has been increased to “4-6 years” – whilst the Yazidi representatives have been told that their people will have to wait “until 2022”. In a region where religious minorities face continuing threats on all sides, and where there is no hope of returning to their homes, such delays are completely unacceptable. The three private resettlement initiatives referred to above were able to complete the assessment and necessary security clearances (and to a higher specification than UNHCR use) within a matter of weeks!. It is hard to resist the conclusion that these delays serve to keep refugees at arm’s length – not to meet their needs even if they are facing Genocide.

Within the UK, just over 1000 Syrian refugees have now been received under the Syrian VPS and Gateway schemes, but efforts to find out whether any of them might be Christian or Yazidi, despite invoking the FOI, have met with a blank wall. However, Citizen UK citing very senior sources were able to disclose to Professor Michelle Brown that “1.8% are Christian” – a figure regarded as generous since the Home Office and UNHCR appear to believe that only “1.2%” of Syrians are Christian. The actual prevalence is 4 – 5 times higher. If non-discrimination policies truly apply then the Syrian VP scheme should include a proportional number of Christians and Yazidis – around 5% at least; moreover, because they are the victims of Genocide these people should be regarded as especially vulnerable and placed at the forefront of the allocation process. Unfortunately, the Home Office advise that religious affiliation is specifically excluded from the selection process!

David Burrowes MP in his speech to Parliament on the day of the meeting said “The Select Committee on International Development, which is chaired by my predecessor in my constituency, the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg), produced an excellent report. It identified, as NGOs have, that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community, religious minorities and children are the most vulnerable and are discriminated against, whether in access to healthcare, in not being able to return to their country of origin, or particularly in not being able to go into camps (italics mine).

The proposed UK Community Sponsorship Scheme is still being developed. We have made representation to Government that, in order to guarantee the best possible ‘fit’ between host and recipients and therefore the best outcome from resettlement, sponsors should be able (as per the Canadian scheme) to choose whom they take – e.g. age, family size, occupational background, and religious faith. Several thousand Churches have registered an interest in taking refugees but, at present, choice is not an option and selection will continue to rely on UNHCR who, as has been seen, systematically bypass Christians and Yazidis. We detect a worrying lack of curiosity as to the plight and conditions of minorities who fall outside of the UNHCR system. It is not their “fault” that they are persecuted within and around the camps, or subject to discrimination by UN officials (Barnabas Fund report); it is the fault of UNHCR to fail to guarantee safety and security for refugees in its care. Our Government should be concerned about this and not seeking to blame the victims.

As referred to by Bishop Angaelos and the other speakers there is a well-organised network of Churches across the ME, supported by NGOs, who are well placed to identify traumatised and vulnerable people who would be ideal for inclusion in the Syrian VPS. For this to happen HMG will need to reach outside of the UNHCR system and begin talking to the Churches and NGOs. Baroness Warsi endorsed this in respect of the need to reach people outside of Syria – including children and orphans in Iraq.

Bishop Angaelos ended the meeting by calling for persecuted religious minorities to be “validated and empowered” – not ignored. If Western Governments continue their reluctance to name Genocide where it occurs, this condones, if not facilitates, further slaughter. It is time for courageous moral leadership before the global tide of persecution spreads even further.