Asselborn visited the Khanke camp which houses around 14,000 people, meeting with its inhabitants and officials of the International Organisation for Migration which provides health education and training services to the displaced. Photo: MAEE

Asselborn visited the Khanke camp which houses around 14,000 people, meeting with its inhabitants and officials of the International Organisation for Migration which provides health education and training services to the displaced. Photo: MAEE

Foreign affairs minister Jean Asselborn visited a camp for displaced people in Duhok, Iraq, meeting Yezidi survivors of violence perpetrated by militant jihadist group Daech.

On the last day of his working visit in Iraq, Jean Asselborn (LSAP) travelled to the Duhok region where many of those affected by the attempted genocide by Daech have fled to. More than 2,700 Yezidis are estimated to be missing nearly eight years after the militant jihadist group’s massacres committed against the minority group indigenous to Kurdistan.

Asselborn visited the Khanke camp which houses around 14,000 people, meeting with its inhabitants and officials of the International Organisation for Migration which provides health education and training services to the displaced. However, there is a lack of long-term perspective for those in the camp who cannot yet return to the Sinjar valley they had to flee due to a lack of safety in the region.

The trip was an opportunity for Luxembourg’s foreign affairs minister to meet with two Yezidi survivors during his visit of the offices of NGO Yazda. Asselborn congratulated them on their work to raise awareness of the crimes committed by Daech and outlined Luxembourg’s support in the framework of its mandate at the UN Human Rights Council. The grand duchy supports NGO Yazda though the foreign affair ministry’s directorate for cooperation and humanitarian action. The Yazidi organisation promotes access to mental health and psychosocial support services, as well as to legal services for displaced persons in Iraq.