MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. Russia has established good cooperation with the Syrian authorities in safeguarding the rights of children having Russian citizenship in the territory of that country, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s commissioner for human rights, democracy and rule of law, Konstantin Dolgov, said at a meeting of the inter-departmental working group for international issues of children’s rights protection.
"The Russian Foreign Ministry and our embassies and consular offices have been working in a proactive way to protect the rights of Russian children in all countries. Among other things we have been taking steps to secure the return home of those children who were taken out of Russia in violation of our laws and the corresponding regulatory procedures, or children who have found themselves in zones of conflicts," he said. "Regrettably, such cases are not infrequent."
As far as Syria is concerned, Dolgov said, such work had to be done amid adverse conditions, because the government did not control the country’s entire territory.
"We have been cooperating with the governments of such countries actively and tightly," Dolgov said. "In particular, we have established good cooperation with the Syrian and Iraqi authorities, but it should be borne in mind that such countries have their own laws and their own traditions, in particular, there where children, as a rule have the citizenship of the respective countries."