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UAE to help African children in trafficking row |
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Written by News Editor
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Thursday, 01 November 2007 |
Lebanon news, Lebanese radio
station , world news, music, discover Lebanon, visit Beirut, Radio sawt
Beirut
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A charity in the United Arab Emirates said on Thursday it has offered to help 103 children at the centre of a row sparked by a French charity's attempt to airlift them from Chad to France.
"Dubai Cares," based in the booming Gulf emirate of Dubai, is proposing to fund an effort to "trace the children's families, reunite them with their families and get them back to school," an official involved in the charity told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Nine French nationals are being accused of child trafficking over the French charity's plan to airlift the 103 children it called war orphans.
The nine -- six members of the charity Zoe's Ark and three journalists -- face a forced labor sentence in Chad on charges of kidnapping and extortion, while seven Spanish flight crew are charged with complicity.
The charity says it hoped to save children from Sudan's troubled Darfur region but French officials and U.N. aid workers say they believe many were from Chad and were not orphans.
"Dubai Cares" is a fundraising campaign launched in September by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum, who is also prime minister and vice president of the UAE, of which Dubai is part, to help educate one million children in poor countries.
It has so far raised more than 367 million dollars.
The official said contacts had started through UAE embassies to communicate the offer to assist the African children to the "parties concerned."
"We are approaching the government of Chad and later on I believe we will contact France and Sudan," he said.
"We don't want to be caught in the politics. We are doing this from a purely humanitarian perspective," he added. "We believe the children must go back to school because this is their protective environment."
The official said "Dubai Cares" has already committed to fund the education component of a rehabilitation drive for thousands of children in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in Lebanon which was devastated by fighting between the army and Islamist militants this year. |
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