Children brought from Iraq handed over to relatives

After examination at the Moscow Medical Centre, 30 children brought from the Middle East were handed over to their relatives, Anna Kuznetsova, the Russian Children's Ombudsperson, has informed today.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 30, 2018, a special flight from Iraq with 30 Russian children landed at the airfield Ramenskoye near Moscow. According to Ms Kuznetsova, other 36 children will be returned from Iraq in January.

23 children brought to Russia in December were sent to Dagestan, five – to Chechnya, one – to Kabardino-Balkaria, and one – to Tatarstan. All of them were examined at the Medical Research Centre for Children's Health, the press service of the Russian Children's Ombudsperson has stated.

Practically all the children brought from the Middle East need psychological rehabilitation and treatment, a source from the office of the head and government of Chechnya told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "Some are extremely exhausted. They had been long under fire and bombing; then they spent several months with their mothers in extremely hard conditions in the Baghdad prison," he said.

The children brought from Iraq practically do not know Russian, a psychologist named Aset told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "Older children speak their mother tongue a little, but they speak the Arabic language more. Therefore, they themselves and their relatives have a very difficult time; apart from the physical and psychological state of these children. It will take a lot of effort and time to integrate them into our environment," she believes.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 5, 2019 at 03:01 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.