Rescue of six Yazidi women after 8 and a half years in captivity

After weeks of investigation, I am extremely heartened to report that we have rescued six more Yazidi women who were taken captive by ISIS.

The women were still children and teenagers when they were first taken captive in 2014. Trafficked out of Iraq and onto Syria, they were rescued on Saturday morning.

They have been flown back to Erbil where they will be reunited with their families, and offered all the psychosocial support they need.

This rescue wouldn’t have been possible without the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government, H.E Nichervan Barzani. By setting up an office dedicated to rescuing kidnapped Yazidi women and girls, he has helped many of them escape ISIS captivity.

We are also thankful to the support of the Turkish authorities who played an important role bringing these women to safety.

Rescuing trafficked and enslaved Yazidi women and children is an on-going humanitarian campaign and the reunification of these six women with their families, after nearly nine years, gives us hope that more can be found.

We will continue to search for the remaining women and children who we know are still missing. In this endeavor, we are asking for help with international partners.

Between us we can and we must bring more kidnapped women home.