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The President of Greece, Ms Katerina Sakellaropoulou, visited the Ismaili Centre, Lisbon, during her three-day trip to Portugal last week. She was welcomed to the Centre by Princess Zahra and Prince Hussain.

At the Ismaili Centre, President Sakellaropoulou also met with Portugal’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Francisco André, and leaders of the Jamat and AKDN. Ms Sakellaropoulou, the first woman to be elected President of Greece, has been in office since March 2020.

After a brief presentation of the Jamati institutional structure and the settlement programme, she also had the opportunity to meet families of refugees, and reunite with old acquaintances - one of whom was 13-year-old Arezu Kabuli from Afghanistan. After moving to Portugal from Greece, Arezu was awarded a scholarship to study at the International School of Boston, starting this autumn.

As part of a bilateral agreement, hundreds of refugees have arrived in Portugal from Greece in recent months, hoping to escape conflict and poverty, and find a safe, secure new home. Over the past three years, according to the International Rescue Committee, Greece has taken in over 50,000 refugees from the Middle East and South and Central Asia, some of whom aspire to move on to other European countries.