Kazakhstan brings home almost 100 children from conflict zones in 2016-2017
ASTANA. Dec 19 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan has brought home nearly 100 children from conflict zones since late 2016, according to acting head of the Education and Science Ministry's Committee for the Protection of Children's Rights Yerzhan Yersainov.
"As of December 12, 2018, 91 children had returned from combat zones. These include 35 children of the preschool age, and 56 children of the school age. Twenty-eight of those children are receiving social benefits," Yersainov said at the meeting on de-radicalization and rehabilitation of minors returned from zones of terrorist activity in Astana on Wednesday.
These minors "do not pose a threat to society, as they did not take direct part in the hostilities," he said.
"We treat them as victims taken away by parents. Some of the children returned in 2017, and some in 2016. These are all children who have come back since late 2016," Yersainov said.
Kazakhstan started to open centers for de-radicalization and rehabilitation of minors returning from zones of terrorist activity in August. The country has nine centers of the kind, and three more will open in 2019.