UN praises Mujica's initiative to provide home for Syrian orphanded children

Monday, May 26th 2014 - 07:17 UTC

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President Mujica's offer “is a drop in the ocean, but each effort by each country is very important and welcome,” Alfaro said.

The United Nations' refugee commission expressed gratitude that Uruguay is preparing to provide a new home for 100 children orphaned by Syria's civil war. Senior regional UNHCR official Michelle Alfaro said there are more than 2 million Syrian refugees in all, and Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan can't handle them all, so the agency hopes to relocate 30,000 this year.

Germany took 5,000 Syrian refugees last year and has agreed to take another 5,000 this year. Brazil has granted humanitarian visas to 2,000.

President Jose Mujica's offer to take 100 children “is a drop in the ocean, but each effort by each country is very important and welcome,” Alfaro said.

Mujica said the orphans could be housed at first at the presidency's summer retreat, a mansion and riverfront estate surrounded by rolling pastures.

But Alfaro said the U.N. High Commission for Refugees almost never relocates orphans without their families — each child will have to come with at least one other relative. That means the total number Uruguay eventually accepts still must be worked out, particularly since Mujica's government would be responsible for all their expenses.

“These children are with an uncle, a brother, a cousin,” Alfaro said.

Foreign Minister Luis Almagro said the first Syrian children could arrive as early as September from camps in the Middle East.

Alfaro said there are 600,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, more than 700,000 in Turkey and more than 1 million in Lebanon. “Their situation is dramatic. These countries are overflowing,” she said.

Mujica proposed taking the children several weeks ago, and at first said he would like to consult the Uruguayan people about it. But preparations have advanced without even congressional oversight. Some opposition lawmakers have complained that the ruling Broad Front coalition should worry first about Uruguay's own poor children.

Categories: Politics, International, Uruguay.

Tags: José Mujica, Luis Almagro, Michelle Alfaro, orphanded children, Syria, United Nations, United Nations' Refugee Commission, Uruguay.

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reality check
Where ever these children are given homes throughout the world, I hope the UN takes the appropriate measures to ensure the prospective parents are properly vetted. It would be a travesty for these children to have lived through one hell to wind up living in another.
May 26th, 2014 - 09:37 am 0
Conqueror
@1 Can't disagree with that. Syrians speak Arabic. Uruguayans speak.......? So it's off to unintelligible, homosexual, same sex marriage, drug-taking Urineguay.
May 26th, 2014 - 11:03 am 0
earsup
In the refugee camps in Jordan, Turkey and the Lebanon, the children have no future whatsoever. They are surrounded by misery. Here they are in a new and clean environment, far away from the bombs, they can learn spanish and english, and just go to school. They can receive psychological help, although their traumas can never be resolved completely. What can there be against helping these children out of their hell in Syria? Yes, help poor and traumatised Uruguyan children as well. Why haven't we done so already? But we cannot say that we are willing to help these refugee kids only after every UY child has been transformed in a happy and carefree child.
May 26th, 2014 - 12:05 pm 0

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