LA CALERA, Chile - Chile on Sunday greeted 39 Palestinians from a refugee camp in Syria for permanent resettlement, and local residents turned out to give them a rousing welcome.
“Leave your suffering in the past and let Chile be the fountain of your newfound happiness,” deputy Interior Secretary Felipe Harboe told the tired newcomers, who spent 40 hours traveling to this farming community north of Santiago.
The Palestinians, 23 of them children, were greeted by an official welcoming committee and many cheering locals who waved Palestinian flags and signs recalling their own Middle Eastern descent from immigrants who arrived when La Calera was founded in the late 19th century.
“Through you we relive the adventure of being an immigrant,” La Calera Mayor Roberto Chahuan, the grandchild of Palestinians, told the exhausted refugees who were to be settled in apartment buildings in the town.
After the ceremony, the Palestinian families were escorted to their apartments. Local authorities will provide education, health care and Spanish classes.
The 39 Palestinians are the first of a group of 117 Chile has accepted to resettle under a 2007 program it agreed to with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The remaining refugees accepted in Chile will arrive in two groups in the coming weeks for resettlement in San Felipe, north of Santiago, and two neighborhoods in the capital.
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