ROME, NOVEMBER 28 – Church groups bring 113 Syrian refugees to Italy. The refugees flew into Rome’s Fiumicino airport from Lebanon on Wednesday, where they were greeted by host families and volunteers.
Their safe passage was organized and financed by the Humanitarian Corridors initiative, established by four religious groups to enable vulnerable refugees to start new lives in Italy and elsewhere in Europe.
“These kids have only known the war and refugee camps. But now they’ll have a future in Italy,” said Marco Impagliazzo, president of the Community of Sant’Egidio, which together with the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI) and the Waldensian Evangelical Church, organized and financed the safe passage.
Since 2016, the groups have together brought over 3,000 Syrians to Italy, France, Belgium and Andorra, 1,800 of them to Italy alone.
The network of church groups provides the new arrivals with housing and organizes schooling for the children as well as language classes. The programme was selected as the regional winner for Europe for UNHCR’s 2019 Nansen Refugee Award.
Syria’s war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions, mostly to Turkey and Lebanon, since it erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. (@OnuItalia)
