Syrian cancer patient, 7, flown to Italy

A 7-year-old Syrian girl with cancer has become the first of an estimated 1,000 refugees who are being brought to Italy on humanitarian grounds in a pilot project aimed at dissuading refugees from embarking on deadly sea crossings.

Falak Al Hourani, her parents and 6-year-old brother arrived Thursday at Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci airport thanks to the "humanitarian corridor" project launched by the Rome-based Catholic Sant’Egidio Community and the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy.

The two groups lobbied the Italian government to grant a thousand humanitarian visas for refugees in camps in Lebanon, Morocco and Ethiopia and put up the estimated 1.3 million euros ($1.4 million) to process their visas, transport them to Italy and get them resettled here while their asylum applications are processed.

Associated Press