Chilean President
Welcomes Palestinian
Refugees
Chilean President
Michelle Bachelet
Thursday welcomed 117
Palestinian refugees to
the country who arrived
from the border of Iraq
with Syria.
During a ceremony at the
government headquarters,
Bachelet recalled of her
own exile experience in
Germany during the coup
d'etat in 1973 led by
general Augusto
Pinochet.
"I want to tell you that
I know exactly how it
feels to be a refugee in
a strange country. I
know it because I lived
that, I also was a
refugee", Bachelet said.
"One arrives to a place
with an unknown language
that is in many cases
hard to learn. One
arrives to a place with
different culture and
customs. One arrives to
a place where we have to
reconstruct our life
from scratch", she
added.
Chile received
international solidarity
when thousands of men
and women had to leave
their country,
therefore, now "it is
our turn to give it
back", Bachelet said.
"In the Arab world
hospitality is one of
the most important
values. And it is
precisely the value that
today we claim: we want
to be your second
homeland. Welcome, from
now on this is your
home," Bachelet told the
refugees.
President of the
Palestinian Federation
in Chile Mauricio Abu
Gosh thanked on behalf
of the refugees the
Chilean government's
kind gesture.
The last group of
Palestinian refugees
arrived in Chile on
Wednesday, making a
total of 117 people, who
have been arranged to
live in the cities of La
Calera, San Felipe and
in the suburbs of the
municipalities of
Recoleta and Luloa.
The arrival of
Palestinian refugees to
Chile is organized by
the Permanent Program of
Solidary Transfer which
was founded in 1999 in
cooperation with the
Office of the United
Nations High
Commissioner for
Refugees.
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