Russian children returned from Syria

The group was brought home from a refugee camp, Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova has said

A group of 26 Russian children have been returned to their home country to be reunited with their families, the Russian presidential commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, announced on Friday.

The children were brought home aboard a Russian military plane and are now set to undergo medical examination in one of Moscow’s federal clinics and rehabilitation centers before being reunited with their families.

Lvova-Belova explained that the group, consisting of 14 boys and 12 girls aged 5 to 12, was found in a refugee camp in northeastern Syria. She added that prior to leaving Syria, they were examined by doctors.

“Together with my team, they visited one of the refugee camps, took blood samples from the children to conduct DNA tests to confirm kinship,” the commissioner said, noting that they were also accompanied to Russia by medical experts from the Pirogov Children’s Clinical Hospital and the Forensic Medical Examination Center of the Russian Ministry of Health.

She added that the families involved will be assisted in obtaining all necessary documents, while regional ombudsmen will help in matters of education, medical care, and obtaining social support.

The commissioner thanked the workers of Russia’s Embassy in Damascus, Senator Konstantin Basyuk, servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces group in Syria, the National Defense Control Center, and the Russian Air Force in helping return the children.

Basyuk noted that Friday’s mission is the third of its kind conducted this year in Syria with the help of Lvova-Belova. He stated that in March, 32 children were returned through a similar operation and another 20 were brought home in July.

“The situation in the Middle East is heating up, work is becoming more difficult and dangerous. And it is even more important to bring all our kids home from this troubled region,” the senator said.

Lvova-Belova stated that since the humanitarian mission to repatriate Russian children from the Middle East was launched in 2018 at the request of President Vladimir Putin, a total of 592 have been returned home, including from Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and Türkiye.