The news: One hundred children orphaned by the Syrian civil war could find a home in Uruguayan President José "Pepe" Mujica's summer retreat, "a mansion and riverfront estate surrounded by rolling pastures," according to Yahoo News. That would be a welcome sight for any of the hundreds of thousands of refugees displaced by Syria's political turmoil.
The children could arrive as early as September, coming from refugee camps in the Middle East. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) does not relocate orphans without a family member; each child would arrive with at least one relative — like an uncle, cousin or sibling. The exact number of children expected at Mujica's summer residence is still being worked out, particularly since the Uruguayan government will be responsible for all of the expenses.
More than 2 million Syrians have fled the country since the conflict began in 2011. Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon have taken in the majority. More than 1 million Syrians have relocated to Lebanon, while 600,000 are in Jordan and 700,000 are in Turkey. Germany and Brazil have granted immigration visas to Syrian refugees, 10,000 from the former and 2,000 from the latter.
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