A majority of Dutch MPs have backed a motion calling the crimes committed by IS against the Yazidi people in northern Iraq as genocide and a crime against humanity.

The move is an important one to the Yazidi community in the Netherlands. ‘I hope that this motion is the first step in bringing the perpetrators to justice and offering the victims the help they need,’ Wahhab Hassoo told broadcaster NOS.

The Yazidi, an ethnic and religious minority in Iraq, were attacked by IS in the north of the country in August 2014. Thousands of women and children were enslaved and thousands of men were killed. Hundreds of thousands of Yazidi fled to the mountains to escape the onslaught.

The European parliament and a number of other parliaments have already agreed that the attacks on the Yazidi were genocide.

Hassoo told NOS he also hoped that the move by the Dutch parliament will speed up the asylum procedures facing the Yazidi in both the Netherlands and Iraq.