The Human Rights situation of the Yezidi minority - UNHCR

into drivers of migration amongst the Yezidi community in Georgia. 133 Due to the focus of
NGOs assisting the IOM in the implementation of the survey, the study featured a
disproportionate number of Yezidis in the Georgian sample. Therefore, while the study’s
results may not have been representative of Georgian migrants overall, they are useful for the
purposes of this paper. Overall, the principal reasons for migration given by respondents in
all three countries were socio-economic conditions and perceived opportunities for economic
advancement abroad; overall 86 per cent of respondents from all three countries cited these
reasons for going abroad. A much smaller number cited human rights violations as the trigger
of migration. Others had gone abroad to study or be reunited with family members already
abroad. 134
Most respondents from Georgia were oriented towards permanent resettlement abroad; their
principal destinations were Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, Switzerland and
Spain. Respondents from the Armenian and Azerbaijani samples were also mainly oriented
towards Germany and the Netherlands, and also Belgium. Virtually all respondents had
applied for asylum and with one exception had been rejected, showing that in these cases
representatives of both titular nationalities (Armenians, Azeris and Georgians) and a minority
(Yezidis) had their claims rejected. However, the study notes that upon return to Georgia,
Yezidi respondents were especially prone to attempts by officials to extort money from them;
this is not to say that ethnic Georgians repatriated to Georgia are not also harassed in this
way, but the survey shows ethnic minorities to be “especially affected” by such harassment.
The study also notes that “such harassment stopped when the officials realized that the
returnees had no money at all to ‘share’ with them”. 135
A further nuance is indicated in the fact that 82 per cent of the Georgian sample indicated
sometimes serious problems resuming normal life after return, compared with 69 per cent of
the Azerbaijani sample and about a third of the Armenian sample. 136 With non-Georgians,
specifically Yezidis, comprising a disproportionate share of the Georgian sample, this may be
taken as a very rough indicator that members of ethnic minorities are generally disadvantaged
compared to members of the titular nationality and found it more difficult to reintegrate into
normal life in their home countries.
6.2 Reception of Yezidis in Adopted Countries.
Migration has been an important phenomenon in the experience of Yezidi communities for
some 300 years. Today, the emergence of numerically significant, stable Yezidi communities
in countries where historically Yezidis have had no presence has far-reaching consequences
for the global Yezidi community and for Yezidi identity itself.
The reception of Yezidis in Western Europe has forced certain changes upon the
communities there. Specifically, traditional concepts of sacred knowledge and monopolies
held on that knowledge by religious castes have been challenged by the need to explain
Yezidism to outsiders. Whereas according to tradition only Sheikhs and Pirs can discuss
133 International Organization for Migration, The Return and Reintegration of Migrants to the South Caucasus:
An Exploratory Study, Bonn, 2002. The sample size was 103: 47 from Armenia, 29 from Azerbaijan and 27
from Georgia.
134 Idem, p.15
135 Idem, pp.18-19
136 Idem, p.20
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