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Russia knows about 700 children taken by their parents to hostility areas in Middle East

Since August 2018, children’s rights ombudspersons in Russian regions have been preparing documents needed to evacuate Russian children whose mothers are kept at a Baghdad prison

Commissioner for the Rights of the Child, Anna Kuznetsova Press Service of the Ombudsman under the President of the Russian Federation on the Rights of the Child

Commissioner for the Rights of the Child, Anna Kuznetsova

© Press Service of the Ombudsman under the President of the Russian Federation on the Rights of the Child

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. Russia has information about some 700 Russian children who were brought to the Middle East countries by their parents, the website of Russian children’s rights ombudsperson Anna Kuznetsova reported on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Kuznetsova arrived in Baghdad to accompany, along with medics and psychologists, a group of 30 children on their way back to Russia from Iraq. A Russian emergencies plane with these children is expected to land at the Ramenskoye airfield outside Moscow later on Sunday.

According to the website, Russia’s foreign, emergencies, health and education ministries set up a commission and a working group in September 2017 to help evacuate children from areas of hostilities.

"Over this period, a data base has been compiled which had information about 699 under-age children of Russian nationals who were brought to the Middle East by their parents," according to the website.

Since August 2018, children’s rights ombudspersons in Russian regions jointly with the Russian foreign ministry have been preparing documents needed to evacuate Russian children whose mothers are kept at a Baghdad prison. "According to the Russian foreign ministry’s data, there are 115 such children aged under ten and eight children aged from 11 to 17. Relatives of these children live in 16 Russian regions," the ombudsperson’s website says.

Earlier on Sunday, head of Russia’s Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, wrote on his Telegram account that a special flight with 30 children had taken off from Baghdad for Moscow.

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