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Palau Provides Safe, Welcoming Haven to Asylum Seekers

Palau Provides Safe, Welcoming Haven to Asylum Seekers
11 young asylum-seekers were in limbo, fleeing from arrest in Myanmar, before the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau mobilized to protect them in February. The newcomers say they're astounded by the generosity of Palau and its people.

11 young asylum-seekers were in limbo, fleeing from arrest in Myanmar, before the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau mobilized to protect them in February. The newcomers say they're astounded by the generosity of Palau and its people.

"It's our age-old tradition to receive those in need whenever they somehow arrive on our shores," the tiny nation's president said in an interview.

"They didn't know us," Aye Aye Thant, 34, the group's sole fluent English speaker and de facto spokeswoman, said Sunday. "We are not workers, and we don't serve their country. But we are treated as their own siblings."

Now Palau is making world news again after agreeing to take the Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo prison, who were mistakenly accused of terrorism.

(Continue reading the AP story at NBC News)

Photo courtesy of Sun Star 

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