ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi government will begin its delivery of financial grants to female Yezidi survivors who suffered at the hands of the so-called Islamic State, the country’s immigration minister said on Thursday.
During a press conference on April 18, Iraq’s Minister for Displacement and Migration Nofal Mousa announced the start of a program called the “Yezidi Survivors’ Grant” which provides each survivor with two million Iraqi dinars, equivalent to about $1,600.
Hussein Qaidi, a member of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Yezidi Rescue Office, told Kurdistan 24 on Thursday that the decision was implemented after several meetings between Kurdish and Iraqi delegations.
The meetings led to a bill called the “Compensation of Yezidi Survivors” being sent to the House of Representatives at the Iraqi Parliament who then voted to approve it.
“This is a good step in the right direction by the Iraqi government,” Qaidi told Kurdistan 24. “Although it is late, we are still happy that the grant program has begun.”
He added that the first batch of survivors, numbering at 899 women, will receive their grants first and will be followed by the dispersal of payments to two additional groups of women at a later time.
