Global – Centro Astalli: Arrivals by Sea Double, More and More Abuses on Women
In its annual report, the Jesuit Refugee Service in Italy denounces the obstacle course for the recognition of the rights of those seeking international protection. Father Ripamonti: with refugees from Ukraine, there will be 90 million worldwide
With the war in Ukraine, displaced persons in the world will reach 90 million. Father Camillo Ripamonti, president of the Centro Astalli, reported this terrible figure today during the presentation of the 2022 Annual Report of the Jesuit Refugee Service, based in Rome. As of today, with reference to mid-2021 figures, refugees and displaced persons are estimated to be around 84 million, compared to just over 82 million the previous year. More Ukrainian refugees arrived in just a few weeks than there were migrants and asylum seekers who landed during 2021. So the war in Ukraine, the report points out, shows that these presences do not represent "an invasion, nor a threat to our security." "The emergency we are experiencing in Ukraine - Father Camillo Ripamonti, president of Centro Astalli, explains to Vatican News - makes us think of the many other emergencies experienced around the world. We have already forgotten the situation in Afghanistan in August 2021 and the war in the Horn of Africa. So, so many emergencies that are part of that world war in pieces of which Pope Francis often speaks."
Arrivals by Sea
During 2021, the report goes on to say, the number of migrants arriving by sea doubled, to a total of more than 67,000. Of these, there were just under 9,500 unaccompanied minors. Centro Astalli documents the increase in torture and abuse suffered by those received in the facility. A dramatic example refers to the women followed by the service of gynecology, more than 200 in 2021, most of whom have suffered torture, gender-based violence or abuse, in the countries of origin or during travel. Dramatic are also the experiences of those who have lived in prison in Libya, which "almost unanimously tell of abuse, violence and persecution".
The Eternal State of Emergency
If in 2021 Europe has not managed to find a far-sighted and inclusive common policy on migration, explains Centro Astalli, in Italy, two years after the security decrees, we have not yet come out of the emergency, on which weigh the effects of the pandemic, which "have exacerbated the vulnerability of refugees and social marginalization". Even today, about two out of three migrants are hosted in the Cas, the Extraordinary Reception Centers. The "rejectionist bureaucracy", further complicated by the measures necessary to contain the pandemic, has not "taken into account the difficulties of the most fragile users" and has ended up alienating those who most urgently need to feel included and welcomed. One of the first hurdles to obtain international protection, as it has always been in recent years, is to obtain civil registration, necessary to access social rights. The digitalization of many offices, we read, has represented an aggravation in the life of forced migrants. The need for an organic plan for integration, even more so due to the continuation of the pandemic, is ever stronger, also considering the immense fatigue of refugee families who cannot count on informal, parental or friendly support networks.
Meeting to Fight Fear
Against fear, we need more knowledge and opportunities to meet, urges therefore the Centro Astalli that, in 2021, welcomed 17 thousand people, of which 10 thousand in Rome. "We have intervened - Father Ripamonti goes on to explain - by doing our part, carrying forward the discourse of a more widespread reception that always seeks the integration of people, also imagining spaces for cohabitation of people - which means, for example, putting together within the same space Italian university students and university refugees, with the common goal that of cultural growth and living together, because in any case the community of the future will be a plural community and, therefore, already beginning to live together is important."
Cardinal Hollerich's Intervention
It is unacceptable and a shame for our civilization that, in Europe, since 2014, 24,600 migrants have lost their lives mainly in the Mediterranean. This is how, during the presentation of the report, intervened by video, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, president of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the EU, (Comece) according to which they are not even "acceptable the conditions and mistreatment they encounter on their journey, as demonstrated by the situation in Libya where torture, cruel treatment, rape and sexual abuse are the order of the day". "European countries," he then said, "cannot cooperate with this process of systematic dehumanization of migrants and refugees that dehumanizes us as well," pointing out that we cannot be "simply passive spectators" in the face of the epochal change" that is being witnessed around the world. "We have a moral obligation - he added - to denounce all this, to demand that our authorities treat everyone humanely regardless of their legal status. Civilized countries cannot - he concluded citing the words of Pope Francis in Malta - sanction for their own interest murky agreements with criminals who enslave people."
Source: Vatican News
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