- Title: GERMANY: Interior Minister promises Syrian refugees safety
- Date: 11th September 2013
- Summary: HANOVER, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 11, 2013) (REUTERS) SYRIAN REFUGEES GATHERED IN ROOM VARIOUS OF REFUGEES SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER, HANS-PETER FRIEDRICH, SAYING: "You have had to experience a lot in the last weeks and months and now you are safe here in Germany." ARABIC TRANSLATION "Of course it is an exciting thing, when you are so far from your ow
- Embargoed: 26th September 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA56VZ9AZZ24NQMSKMK2H7HAHGN
- Story Text: Germany's Interior Minister on Wednesday (September 11) promised a group of 107 Syrian refugees that they were now safe after landing in the northern town of Hanover.
They were the first of a new contingent of some 5,000 Syrians who are to be flown to Germany as part of the country's Humanitarian Admissions Programme (HAP).
"You have had to experience a lot in the last weeks and months and now you are safe here in Germany," Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told the group after their disembarked their charter flight from Beirut.
The are to be housed in Germany until it is safe for them to return home and will begin their stay by participating in a so-called "cultural orientation programme" to help them integrate into their new local communities.
Some 30 men, 40 women and 35 children were on board the first flight and were firstly to be included in a so-called "cultural orientation programme" to help them integrate into their communities in Germany.
"It's good. We are leaving our country and this is very hard for me and my wife but you know, it's our circumstances in Lebanon was hard, we live in one room and life is very costly back there so we find it a good opportunity for a better life," said one man, who travelled with his wife and children to Germany after spending some time in Lebanon.
"In Syria it was a danger, for me and for my wife going to work and for the kids, there was shelling in our neighbourhood. So this the situation in Syria," the man who did not want to be named, added.
The rest of the refugees are expected to be flown to Germany in the coming weeks on around 25 charter flights.
Already two million people have fled from Syria to neighbouring countries, escaping bloodshed in which at least 100,000 people have died, according to the United Nations. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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