On July 10, a total of 119 Afghan refugees arrived at Rome Fiumicino Airport on a flight from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. The journey was organized through the Community of Sant'Egidio’s humanitarian corridors initiative.

Almost 70 of them had lived in a run-down camp in the center of the Pakistani capital since 2021, while the other 50 were relatives of Afghans already in Italy with whom they will be able to unite.

A total of 23 families arrived, including six women with their children. Their husbands were either missing or killed by the Taliban.

Welcoming them at the Fiumicino airport was Andrea Riccardi, Community of Sant'Egidio founder, along with Pierfrancesco Sacco representing the foreign ministry, and a large group of youths from Giovani per la Pace.

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'Now on path towards getting your rights'

In his greetings, Riccardi, after having noted that he had met many of them when they lived in the informal camp in Pakistan, underscored that, "I know that you fought until the last moment to all come to Italy. Our country did not forget you. We did everything we could to get you here."

"I know that in Pakistan," he added, "you had difficult times, moments of pain and separation. For some of you, this is an important time of reuniting with your family. Now, be careful to remain within legality. The path that you must walk is that of legality, of getting your full rights."

Humanitarian corridors organized by Sant'Egidio and other humanitarian organizations in collaboration with the interior ministry and the foreign ministry have enabled over 8,500 refugees to arrive safely in Europe, with Syrians accounting for 53 percent.

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'Corridors extended for another 700 refugees'

"Italy has not forgotten Afghanistan. For this reason, a few months ago our country extended the humanitarian corridor to enable another 700 people to reach Italy," said Sacco.

"In this way, we are trying to make legality win against illegality, reception and integration win against exclusion and segregation. This is part of the essence of Italian diplomacy, which is a diplomacy of peace, mediation, and bringing together."

The foreign ministry representative added that, "the corridor is a space of a house that connects several environments, it is a channel of communication. Facilitating humanitarian corridors is a source of great pride for us. When we talk about corridors, we should also think about university corridors for students and work corridors for refugees that come to be integrated in Italy in search of work."