MINSK, 11 November (BelTA) – The Education Ministry of Belarus will soon find a suitable facility to place migrant children trapped on the border of Belarus with the European Union. Perhaps it will be one of children's recuperation camps, Education Minister Igor Karpenko told reporters following the meeting of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko with senior officials of the Council of Ministers on 11 November, BelTA has learned.
“The Education Ministry is undoubtedly ready to fulfill the instructions of the head of state to provide support, first of all, to children in difficult conditions. In the near future we will choose a facility, perhaps it will be a children's recuperation camp, that will have everything in place [to accommodate children],” the minister said.
“We will also find teachers to take care of the children. Thus, we will offer the refugee children an opportunity to move to a place where they will have better living conditions instead of camping in the open,” he added. This opportunity will also be given to mothers of these children and pregnant women.
A reminder, Aleksandr Lukashenko set a number of tasks for the government at the meeting on 11 November. He asked Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko to give appropriate instructions to the government, the Education Ministry, and the deputy prime minister in charge of social matters. “We need to pay attention to pregnant women and children. The situation is catastrophic. There are a lot of pregnant women who are due soon, a month or two. This is something we will have to deal with as they will probably give birth here. They say they are not leaving the camp. But how's this going to be? Temperatures are falling. They do not know yet how cold it may be in Belarus, in the forests during winter. But they don't want to leave. So we have to be prepared.”
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In this regard, the president also asked Chairwoman of the Council of the Republic Natalya Kochanova to get involved: “Maybe you could ask them to give their children to us. We would place them in our sanatoriums. Perhaps together with mothers. Pregnant women and children are the number one issue. We cannot abandon them. Especially children. We would at least be able to provide them with a shower and food there.”
