Heartwarming photo of Danish officer and Syrian refugee goes viral

Heartwarming photo of Danish officer and Syrian refugee goes viral

AS the Syrian refugee crisis unfolded, we saw hundreds of pictures of people crossing the Danish border in search of a better life.

We have seen tragic images of men, women and children weeping and struggling as they set off on foot — walking down seemingly endless desert roads, or cramped among thousands of others and waiting to cross numerous borders.

But amid all the coverage of the horrific crisis comes a heart-warming picture of a Danish officer playing a game with a Syrian refugee girl, as a group of asylum seekers walk along the Danish-German border towards Sweden.

The beautiful interaction was caught on camera. Source: Reddit

The photo quickly went viral after it was shared on Reddit. Danish newspaper BTreported they were playing a game in which the officer would hold his wedding ring in one hand, and the girl would have to guess where it is.

Police assistant commissioner Knud Reinholdt told BT: “The picture shows that even though we have a task we must solve, we are also dealing with people who are in a difficult situation that nobody wants to be in.

“We have to deal with children who have experienced a lot of things and who have travelled far, so if we can make life a little easier for them, as in the pictures, then it’s worth it. It does not cost anything.”

With more than 380,000 migrants and refugees having crossed the Mediterranean since January, Europe is struggling to cope with the worst refugee crisis it has faced since World War II.

Syria’s civil war has accounted for half of all crossings so far this year, which claimed 240,000 lives after four and a half years.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced that Australia will take 12,000 Syrian refugees within a year, on top of Australia’s current refugee intake.