A group of 48 Syrian refugees
including 18 minors landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on
Tuesday morning via a humanitarian corridor from Lebanon on the
initiative of the lay Catholic association Community of
Sant'Egidio and Protestant churches in Italy.
A further group of 48 people, including 21 minors, will arrive
on a second plane on Thursday.
The refugees have been living in camps in Lebanon's Akkar and
Beqaa Valley regions and in precarious accommodation on the
outskirts of Beirut, many for several years.
The refugees have been brought to Italy under the Humanitarian
Corridor programme launched by Sant'Egidio, the Italian
Federation of Protestant Churches, the Waldensian Table and
Caritas in the wake of the October 3 and 11, 2013 shipwrecks off
Lampedusa in which respectively 368 and 268 people, mainly from
Eritrea in the first shipwreck and from Syria in the second,
lost their lives.
So far around 6,500 refugees have been brought to Europe under
the programme, of whom over 2,650 to Italy from Lebanon.
The new arrivals will begin their new life in Italy in 11
regions.
Some will stay with family members who arrived in the country
via previous corridors and have since integrated, while others
will stay in accommodation made available by Italian families
and associations, which will also support them in their
integration and inclusion in Italy.
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