Yazidis persecuted by ISIS have been failed by the UK, the government was told last week as dozens of MPs urged the Home Office to do more for those fleeing ISIS in Iraq.
Forty-six MPs and peers across parties wrote to home secretary Amber Rudd and secretary of state for international aid Priti Patel on Thursday, calling on them to allow Iraqi refugees into the UK.
Those fleeing ISIS in Iraq are barred from asylum in the UK as the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (SVPRS) only accepts those with Syrian identity documents.
But 90 per cent of Yazidis, whom ministers admit are victims of genocide, are from Iraq and so not eligible under the programme.
Instead those who have fled Iraq are told in UNHCR camps their "situation is not deemed serious enough" to get help in the UK, according to the letter sent last week. Some Yazidis are even told they must wait up to seven years to register with the UNHCR.
The UK's system "fails to account for the systematic persecution at the hands of Daesh of Yazidis," the MPs wrote. "Many of the victims of sexual violence at the hands of Daesh satisfy the vulnerability criteria of the SVPRS and are refugees in camps or in host communities registered with UNHCR."
The letter urged the government "to reassess and extend the UK's SVPRS to ensure that those particularly vulnerable and desperate to build their lives in a more stable nation are able to do so".
It comes after a debate in Parliament last week pressed the government to do more for persecuted Christians around the world.
On Wednesday Christians will be urged to wear red or adopt red filters on social media as part of the Red Wednesday campaign by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral will be lit up in red to mark the blood of those targeted for their faith.
