“They told us they would follow us wherever we go,” the Yazidi refugee tells SBS News. “There are a lot of bearded people in Australia and when I see them I’m fearful. It reminds me of them.”
Delal is one of hundreds of Yazidis now rebuilding their lives in Australia after IS brutally destroyed the world she knew when it targeted the ethnic minority over their religious beliefs in 2014.
The 31-year-old mother of four is one of an estimated 7,000 Yazidis kidnapped by the self-proclaimed Islamic State - to be sold between fighters, abused or raped - as it swept across the community’s heartland of Sinjar in Iraqi Kurdistan.
“They weren’t human beings,” she says. “They were monsters.”
Delal is also the first Yazidi held as an IS slave now resettled in Australia to speak publicly about her trauma.
Peter Dutton tells SBS News that Australia wants to help more Yazidis still being held captive by IS in Iraq and Syria.
Yazidis still enslaved by IS may yet have a future in Australia, according to Peter Dutton, who said authorities were making “every effort” to reunite members of the ethnic minority with loved ones resettled here.
The Home Affairs Minister also told SBS News that Australia – the adopted homeland for more than 900 Yazidis – was determined to play a role in bringing to justice militants responsible for what is now considered by the UN to be a genocide.
Thousands of Yazidis, mostly men, were slaughtered as the self-proclaimed Islamic State targeted their ancestral lands in the Sinjar district in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2014. Thousands more women and children were taken captive to be sold off as sex slaves or forced to train as child soldiers.
“We are compelled to act, when you read the cases of these individuals and the women, sisters, daughters, cousins, mothers that have suffered at the hands of these barbaric animals,” Mr Dutton said.
“It's really unbelievably horrific and that's why Australia's acted to provide support.”
The minister’s remarks coincide with the account of 31-year-old Delal*, who is the first former IS slave to speak publicly of her experiences since resettling in Australia.
Peter Dutton says Australia is here to help victims of IS. Source: SBS News
Auctioned off on one of the militant group’s notorious slave markets for just $45 USD, Delal and her four children were subjected to unimaginable cruelty and abuse by three foreign fighters before her family was able to buy their release.
More than 40 of her relatives - including her husband - are still missing.
“We have hope in the Australian government,” she told SBS News. “All we want is to be reunited with them here.”
*Not her real name
