In a deeply moving humanitarian moment, the Yazidi community today welcomed survivor Jamila Babir Hajim, who regained her freedom after eleven years of abduction and enforced disappearance in the captivity of the terrorist group ISIS, following its attack on Sinjar District in 2014.
Jamila was only a child when she was taken from her village of Qeni, south of Mount Sinjar, during the brutal assault that claimed the lives of her father and two of her uncles. Her long journey of suffering has finally come to an end with her return to her family. Her homecoming is the result of ongoing efforts to determine the fate of those who were abducted and disappeared during ISIS control between 2014 and 2017.
On this occasion, Masarat Foundation expresses its profound joy and heartfelt happiness at this hopeful news and extends its warmest congratulations to Jamila’s family and to the entire Yazidi community. The return of every survivor is a victory for life and for the human spirit in the face of brutality and darkness.
In this context, the Foundation emphasizes the following:
1. We call on the Iraqi Federal Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to intensify their national and international efforts to determine the fate of the remaining abducted women, men, and children.
2. We stress the urgent need to establish comprehensive and specialized rehabilitation programs to help survivors recover from the deep physical and psychological trauma caused by years of captivity.
3. We call for the activation of legal mechanisms to ensure that victims receive fair compensation for the harm they have suffered and to strengthen justice in order to prevent such human tragedies from ever happening again.
We thank God for Jamila’s safe return and pray for the freedom of all those who remain missing.
