The plane carrying 27 Russian children from Syria landed at the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow on Friday night, the press service of the Russian Presidential Envoy for Children's Rights Anna Kuznetsova told reporters.
"On the night from October 15 to 16 the plane of the Russian Ministry of Defense landed at Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow and delivered 27 children from Syria to their homeland," the press-service informed.
Kuznetsova told the journalists that after quarantine the children would be sent to their close relatives in five regions of Russia. "After a medical examination and quarantine measures, they will be handed over to close relatives. 17 children will be sent to Dagestan, 4 to Penza region, 2 each to Tyumen and Volgograd regions, as well as to the Chechen Republic," she said. Kuznetsova specified that the age of children is from 2 to 13 years.
The current flight was the third after a break caused by restrictive measures in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. The Children's Ombudsman added that negotiations on the next flight were already underway. "We very much hope for success, because there are more than 70 children there, who already have documents, and now, if we have time for the next visit, we will have documents for 27 more children. I would like all these children to be on the board of the Defense Ministry next time," Kuznetsova said.
Work to locate and repatriate underage Russian citizens who are in the Republic of Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic began in the summer of 2017. It is organized and conducted by order of the President of the Russian Federation, with the Commissioner for Children's Rights, a special interagency commission to facilitate the return of children to their homeland was created.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS