Watch: Mother and daughter, 5, reunited in UAE after 60 days apart

Sharjah : A five-year-old Syrian girl was reunited with her mother at Sharjah airport when a special flight from Syria landed in UAE. The girl, named Shaam, was stuck in Syria due to COVID-19 travel restrictions until UAE and Syrian authorities stepped in to help the family.

The Abu Dhabi resident thanked UAE authorities for flying her daughter back to the UAE.

The mother said: "Thanks to all UAE Rulers, UAE authorities for reuniting me with my daughter after 60 days of suffering and separation.''

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Crisis and Emergency authorities worked together with Syrian authorities and brought the little girl back to the UAE.

The mother told Gulf News in a phone call that her daughter went to Syria with her grandmother on March 10.

The mother and her two-and-a-half son, Ebraheim, were supposed to join them 10 days later, but the border has by then been closed due to COVID-19.

The family live in Abu Dhabi.

“Shaam is so happy to come back to UAE. She did not leave her brother, all the time sitting in my lap and kissing me and her brother and playing in her room and toys,” the mother said.

Every day Shaam, a KG 1 student of International Scientific School in Abu Dhabi, has talked with her mother over video call and cried, asking when she could come home. The mother tried to calm her down.

The mother was informed by the National Emergency and Crisis Management Authority that her daughter would arrive at Sharjah International Airport on Tuesday at 9.30am aboard a Syrian airline.

“We prepared her to stay clam and not cry until she reach UAE,” the mother said.