Czech Republic Grants Asylum to Assyrians from Mosul
According to the Associated Press news agency, the first group of these Assyrians, numbering 153 people, arrived in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, on the morning of Sunday, January 24 / fourth of Bahman.
The Assyrians of Mosul were forced to leave their homes by ISIS due to their Christian faith.
These Assyrians were transferred from Prague Airport to a hotel near the city and are scheduled to stay at the hotel for two months.
The Czech government and human rights and religious non-profit organizations have undertaken the costs of transferring and resettling these refugees. These refugees are allowed to remain in the Czech Republic even after the Iraqi crisis ends.
The Czech Republic is one of the countries that opposes the European Union’s refugee acceptance plan and has made refugee acceptance conditional on voluntary assistance from non-governmental organizations.
ISIS militants, upon capturing the city of Mosul in 2014, forced the Assyrians, who are among the indigenous peoples of the city, to either convert to Islam, pay the jizya tax, or fight them.
ISIS identified the homes of these Christians and wrote the letter “N” meaning Nazarene on the doors of their houses. A campaign called the “N Campaign” was formed worldwide in support of these Assyrians.
Since the beginning of the refugee influx into Europe in 2015, more than one million people from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, and other Middle Eastern and North African countries have entered Europe. Germany has accepted the largest number of these refugees.
