File picture: Syrian children refugees, who flock by dozens in Turkey each day, fleeing the civil war in their country, play on October 4, 2013 at a makeshift camp in Ankara, where they arrived three months ago. In the central public Dikmen valley park in front of the eyes of local authorities, they build a shanty town. There are here some 250 refugees from Aleppo (northern syria) and among them 80 children. Saying that they live in very poor conditions, the Syrian refuges collect paper from garbage to try and make ends meet. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad today warned Turkey it will "pay dearly" for supporting rebels fighting to overthrow his regime, in an interview broadcast Friday on Turkish television. Photo AFP-Lehtikuva
The Syrian refugees, who have been allowed refuge in Finland, will receive cultural training before their arrival in the country, sources at the immigration department said.
The first phase of the training for the refugees - who are waiting in Turkey – began in Ankara on Monday, while training for others will take place during this autumn in Rwanda and Malawi, said sources.
The Department of Immigration is organising the training programme, the first of its kind in Finland, with help from foreign aids of church, in a bid to ease the lifestyle of the refugees.
Photo AFP-Lehtikuva
Sources said the aim of the training was to provide refugees with basic knowledge about Finnish society before they arrived in the country.
“The training programme will give mental and physical support, as well as teaching basics of Finnish language and basic vocabulary,” said an official, adding that the mother language of the refugees will be the medium of the training programme.
The training module and the teaching materials will be provided by Diakonia University of Applied Sciences, sources also informed.
Earlier on September 20, Finland decided to accept 500 Syrian refugees next year, increasing the refugee quota for 2014 by 300 persons.
Photo AFP-Lehtikuva
The Ministry of the Interior also made a decision that 200 places of the standard quota of 750 will be allocated to Syrian refugees. Finland wants to participate, as part of the international community, in alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Syria.
The Syrian refugees will be accepted in accordance with the standard quota procedure together with the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR. Because of the extensive refugee crisis in Syria, the UNHCR has appealed on several occasions for states to offer help in the refugee crisis, in addition to providing humanitarian aid.
The UNHCR had also expressed hopes that states would take exceptional measures to help refugees in the face of an overwhelming crisis.
The conflict in Syria, which began nearly two and a half years ago, had so far claimed the lives of approximately 100,000 people. According to the UNHCR, more than two million people have fled Syria, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has estimated that the number of internally displaced people is more than four million. With the crisis continuing, the number of refugees is expected to increase further.
