This American pastor deals with smugglers—and he has saved hundreds of lives because of that.
Bill Devlin, a pastor at Infinity Bible Church in the Bronx, New York City, has made it his personal mission to rescue women and children taken as sex slaves by the Islamic State (ISIS), according to The Christian Post.
In the last few years, Devlin has visited Iraq many times to help Iraqi refugees displaced from their homes by ISIS invaders.
Last year as part of his mission, he partnered with an underground network of smugglers in northern Iraq. In April 2016, he flew to Iraq and handed over $1,500 to help a displaced Yazidi husband and son pay for the costs of helping their wife and mother escape from ISIS captivity,
He returned to the U.S. after that but came back to Iraq last August and December, again giving money to help two other families pay for rescuers to free their loved ones from ISIS detention.
Devlin said three more enslaved girls were rescued with his financial support.
That network has so far rescued more than 200 minority children and women from ISIS captivity.
Devlin said compassion for fellowmen facing dire circumstances compels him to act. "My motivation was that I have three daughters of my own. If my daughters were being held captive by a terrorist organisation and I approach someone and said that I am rescuing girls, I would want them to say, 'I'll join you,'" he told The Christian Post.
The pastor said he has secured the pledges of American donors who are willing to provide funds needed to help Iraqi families pay for the costs of rescuing their loved ones.
Devlin made it clear though that the network is not paying ransom to ISIS, saying that the money is only used to pay the rescuers for their efforts.
In January, The Independent reported that a secret underground network operating in Iraq and Syria has freed more than 3,000 Yazidi women held captive by ISIS.
The network was set up by Kurdish and Christian civilians together with other ethnic minorities and families of the victims, according to the charity group NGO Yazda.
"This is a group made up of all ethnicities working together on the ground. I know of more than five different groups collaborating, some are rescuing from Mosul, some from Raqqa, every group is working in different places," Yazda director Ahmed Burjus told The Independent.
In August 2015, CBN News reported another rescue group called Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq. It is led by a Jewish man from Canada named Steve Maman who said he was inspired by Oskar Schindler, the German businessman who rescued more than 1,200 Jews from the Nazis during World War II.
Maman had rescued nearly 130 victims of enslavement by the time his exploits were reported.
