A Russian Defense Ministry plane delivered 44 more Russian children from Syria to Russia on Monday, the press service of Children's Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation, Anna Kuznetsova, reported.
"A Russian Defense Ministry plane landed at the Chkalovskiy airport near Moscow, on the board of which, accompanied by children's ombudsman Anna Kuznetsova, were 44 children aged from two to 16 who have been taken from the refugee camps temporarily outside the control of the official authorities of Syria, as well as from the Damascus shelter," the statement reads.
Earlier it was reported that Kuznetsova handed over 34 Russian children who were in refugee camps. In addition, another 10 children were handed over from the Damascus orphanage. "I saw how the children live in the Damascus orphanage, all conditions for their life and development are created for them, caring educators are with them. But their relatives are waiting for them at home and are very worried about them, they haven't seen each other for several years. And some grandparents have only seen their grandchildren in pictures. We are taking another 10 children with us to bring them home to their homeland," Kuznetsova said.
The children were returned to Russia as part of an effort to locate and return to their home country underage Russian citizens staying in Iraq and Syria, which began back in the summer of 2017 by order of President Vladimir Putin. The flight was the 13th since December 2018.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS