Viral video of Syrian child kissing ‘Mama Merkel’ hand melts hearts

A video of a Syrian refugee child kissing the hand of German Chancellor Angela Merkel is making rounds of the Arabic press after being posted on YouTube.

Merkel was visiting the Nizip 2 refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border near Gaziantep on Saturday, when the incident took place.

“Welcome to Turkey, the world’s largest refugee hosting country,” read a huge banner hanging over the entrance to the camp, which hosts some 5,000 people, including 1,900 children, in row upon row of white and beige prefabricated houses.

Merkel has been receiving honors from refugees for allowing a pro-refugee stance in Germany, with many on social media nicknaming her “Mama Merkel.”

This isn’t the first time Merkel has been caught in an interaction with a refugee child. Before her open-border policy toward asylum, Merkel comforted a Palestinian teen threatened with deportation in 2015 and who had burst into tears during a televised debate.

(With AFP)