ENS:
French Minister for Immigration Eric Besson and representatives of the Association d’Entraide aux Minorités d’Orient (AEMO) on Nov. 8 received the first group of Iraqis wounded in the attack on the Syriac Cathedral in Baghdad on Oct. 31.
The group is being admitted to France under a program first initiated in 2007 to provide refuge to a certain group of persecuted Iraqis. Since 2007, AEMO volunteers — Episcopalians, Iraqi Chaldeans, and French Catholics — have been working alongside the French government, in Baghdad and in France, to provide sanctuary to Iraqi religious minorities whose lives are endangered for reasons of their faith. To date, AEMO has aided in the safe transfer of 1,300 Iraqis into France, mostly Christians, but also some Mandaeans and minority Muslims.The Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon, president and co-founder of AEMO, and bishop-in-charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, expressed his thanks for the rapid response of the French government in this case. “In offering refuge to the victims of this latest assault, we are making more than a gesture. We are also protesting this egregious violence inflicted on fragile religious minorities in Iraq, and indeed, throughout the Middle East,” he said.
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