Islamic State: Yazidi minority turns to 'smugglers' to rescue their women
Most rescues focus on Iraqi Yazidi women and children living in Islamic State-held areas of Syria and Iraq. The complex and dangerous task can require six smugglers to get one person out.
Khalil Haji checks his phone for messages from a smuggler while sitting with two rescued children, 13-year-old Hassan (c.) and 10-year-old Yar, in Dohuk, Iraq. Using money obtained by the families, and sometimes from the Kurdish Regional Government, Khalil pays smugglers to rescue and transport women and children from where they are being held in Syria and Iraq.
Holly Pickett
Dohuk, Iraq
Abdullah spends his nights facilitating the escape of Yazidis聽captured when Islamic State militants overran their villages.
A former merchant and honey-making enthusiast from聽the village of Tal Qasab, he says he became a 鈥渟muggler鈥� out of necessity: Islamic State (IS) jihadists captured 56 of his Yazidi relatives in the bloody summer of 2014.
Since聽last聽October, he聽has helped rescue 117 members of the religious minority, including 11 family members.
鈥淭oday, my only hobby is IS,鈥� jokes聽Abdullah, who declined to give his last name. He fields late night phone calls from a frightened smuggler who ran into trouble with IS and聽from聽anxious Yazidi families hoping to organize the escape of a loved one.
It is a dangerous line of work.
IS has increasingly targeted and killed smugglers involved in saving Yazidis, a secretive religious minority with pre-Islamic roots whom the militants regard as devil-worshippers. It was their genocidal campaign against the Yazidis鈥� homeland of Mount Sinjar last August that shocked the world into action. 聽in announcing the launch of US airstrikes against IS.
The fate of hundreds of men taken captive last year by IS remains largely unknown 鈥� batches were taken aside and killed days after their capture. Others who had been held along with their families for months were suddenly taken away in May, survivors say.
Today most of the rescue operations focus on women and children living in the IS-held territories of Syria and Iraq. It is a complex task requiring individuals willing to perform a range of functions, from providing an escape vehicle to arranging safe houses and facilitating illegal border crossings.
鈥淪ometimes it takes six smugglers to get someone out of IS territory, sometimes just one,鈥澛燗bdullah says.聽鈥淭he more dangerous the mission, the higher the price. If I have exact information, then I can bring them out from anywhere.鈥�
Before the IS attack on Sinjar,聽he used to transport agricultural machinery across Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. That experience gave him a broad range of contacts 鈥� including merchants, truckers, and small-time smugglers 鈥� whom聽he first called on to rescue聽his niece Marwa and聽nephew Farhad.
Deadly IS ambushes
Abdullah聽is now part of a network of five Yazidi聽rescue facilitators聽based out of Dohuk in northern Iraq. Most people here call them 鈥渟mugglers鈥� 鈥� and the men don't object 鈥撀燽ut the women whom they have rescued simply call them 鈥渟aviors.鈥�
Four members of the network focus on bringing women out of Syria, where Yazidi women are scattered far and wide. The fifth focuses on rescues in Iraq.
鈥淪o many people call asking for help,鈥� says Abdullah, a middle-aged man聽with a crown of silver hair and golden glasses. 鈥淚f there were 50 Europeans held by IS, the world would mobilize every intelligence network to save them. We are just five people yet we are able to pull this off without any help.鈥�
IS has caught onto some of the smugglers' tactics and have begun staging ambushes, using Yazidi women and children as bait.
Nine out of 21 members in the聽Syrian network, a mix of Kurds and Arabs, have lost their lives on the job. Two others pulled out. Yet another went into hiding聽in聽late September when IS militants discovered his name after torturing and killing his associate, a driver that helped shuttle Yazidi women from the Syrian town of Al-Bab to the border with Turkey.
Raqqa out of reach
Escapes are fraught with risk. The militants confiscate captives' phones and generally limit their movements. Women often have to physically break out of the homes were they are held, seizing the moment when their IS captors are deployed to the front or are at聽a聽mosque for prayers.
It has become next to impossible to rescue women from Raqqa,聽the Syrian聽capital of the Islamic State鈥檚 self-styled caliphate,聽ever since IS聽decided to kick聽Kurds聽out of聽the area and restrict聽Internet access to a small number of well-monitored hubs.
Complicating matters further, Turkey has tightened border crossings in a bid to restrict the flow of foreign jihadists and Kurdish fighters聽into聽Syria.
鈥淲e are forced to smuggle聽families out of IS areas to Turkey because that is the easiest, but many have been turned back at the Turkish border,鈥� explains Abdullah. He cites the case of a Yazidi woman who couldn鈥檛 cross into Turkey from the border area of Al-Raee.
鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 a single time that it went smoothly. It takes聽a minimum of three attempts, and for some people up to聽10聽attempts."
Smuggling requires daring, and cash
Khalil Haji, a Yazidi lawyer who now focuses on saving IS captives held in Iraqi territory, has lost five of his friends on the job. 鈥淭he hardest thing is when an operation fails,鈥� he says, sitting in a caf茅 with Hassan and Yar, two Yazidi boys that he helped rescue and now treats to ice cream. 鈥淏ut when you rescue a family and they reunite with their loved ones, anyone who witnesses that moment will want to do this job.鈥�
Those who want to become a smuggler in what has become a vast network involving more than 100 individuals 鈥� among them Kurds and Arabs who hate IS and are willing to take enormous risks to make a profit 鈥� must prove their mettle by helping a Yazidi flee without any leads or help from the coordinating core in Dohuk.
The average cost of a rescue operation within Iraq, Khalil says, is $500. That money covers transportation, fuel, safe houses, Islamic garments and fake identity cards for the women.
But in聽Syria, the costs can ran far higher depending on the complexity of the job.聽Both Khalil and Abdullah say they don鈥檛 make a profit from the rescues, insisting that they pay their only cost 鈥� phone and Internet bills 鈥� out of pocket.聽They work informally with a regional government office in Duhok that helps families pay for the rescues. Iraqi Kurdish officials say they have financed the rescues of more than 2100 Yazidis and that another 3,000 still need to be saved.
The voice of liberation
Not everyone gets financial help. Anifa, a Yazidi woman who fled IS and subsequently helped organize the escape of two of her sisters, says she spent $10,500 to cover their rescue operations. They are trying to raise another $30,000 to save the last captive sister who is 鈥渄eep inside Syria."
Maiko, a Yazidi woman in her twenties from the town of Tel Azer, will never forget the first time she heard Abdullah鈥檚聽voice. A Syrian smuggler bought her from an IS militant in July. Once they reached a safe house in northern Syria, he revealed his identity, playing an audio message from Abdullah. 鈥淭o all my Yazidi mothers and sisters, if you meet a man carrying this voice message, he will save you,鈥� the recording said.
Hearing the Yazidi dialect made her cry from joy. At that moment, after months suffering as the sex-slave of a Saudi jihadist known as Abu Sulieman, she knew everything was going to be OK.
鈥淚 thought I was going to die in Syria,鈥� she recalls, sitting in a dusty tent at a camp for displaced Yazidis on the outskirts of Dohuk. 鈥淚 never thought I would make it back alive. These men are not smugglers, they are saviors.鈥�