Houda Emma Kharat, a little girl kidnapped five years ago by her father, a Syrian citizen who brought her to Aleppo, is travelling back to Italy from Istanbul, where she will land in Milan’s Malpensa Airport this afternoon to be reunited with her mother, Alice Rossini.
Houda Emma, who will soon turn 7, was abducted when she was only a little more than one year old.
Her mother has not seen her since then.
“In all these years, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior – said Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano – have worked non-stop but in silence in close contact with the Italian Central Authority at the Juvenile Justice Department of the Ministry of Justice, to achieve today’s result, which will be confirmed through a DNA test to be carried out in Italy at the end of the identification procedure.”
He added: “All of this was made possible thanks to the excellent cooperation with Turkey: in fact, the Turkish Authorities, aware of the moral relevance of the matter, facilitated the transfer of young Houda Emma from Syria to Turkey. What matters now is that tonight little Houda Emma will be back in her mother’s arms.”
“Therefore, let me express a heart-felt thanks to Turkish Authorities and to all the agencies of the Italian State that have made their embrace possible,” concluded Minister Alfano.
