Mediterranean Hope – Newsletter February 2018
“The Ecumenical Agenda on Migration” presented in Milan, by NEV
The agenda consists of seven proposals that involve the following topics: a law on citizenship (ius soli), the definition of precise standards to legally entering Italy for both migrants and asylum seekers, the regularization on an individual basis of rooted foreigners, the repeal of the crime of clandestinity – provided for in the Bossi-Fini Law, the extension of the Asylum and Refugee Protection Service (SPRAR), the enhancement and dissemination of good reception and integration practices as well as the promotion of the participation of immigrants who are now stabilized in this democratic life through providing active and passive electorate. Read more…
Corridors from Libya: success of the Italian ecumenical experiment, but the EU is not doing enough, by NEV
This new initiative has confirmed the legal and political strength of the Humanitarian Corridors model, promoted and put into practice by the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI) over the last two years. And, it is also an important result that other humanitarian corridors have been opened in France and Belgium following the Italian ecumenical model. But, we are still dealing with questions about the European position, or rather the lack of a European policy to deal with the critical condition of tens of thousands of refugees spread all over a geographical area that goes from Morocco to Lebanon. Read more…
Humanitarian Corridors. Official opening of the second round of evacuations, by NEV
Redouane is made of crystal. He escaped from Syria with his family, and is now seven years old, four of which he spent in a makeshift refugee camp in northern Lebanon. He arrived this morning with the ecumenical project of Humanitarian Corridors at the Rome airport, and was brought to the Bambin Gesù Children’s Hospital in an ambulance. Here he will undergo all the exams needed for his disease: Redouane has bones of glass. Two years ago, he was too fragile to be transported, so his family could not join the first group departing from Tel Abbas, the refugee camp in the Akkar region on the border with Syria. Read more…
The welcome tea, the border tea by Silvia Turati, operator of Humanitarian Corridors, currently in Lampedusa, by NEV
Sometime later, I found myself making large quantities of tea in Lampedusa. In fact, before each migrant landing, we performed this apparently simple, but extremely meaningful ritual. At each landing, we offered hot, sweet tea, which immediately warmed the cold bodies of the migrants and gave them energy, a concrete sign of humanity after the long journey through deserts, after the torture suffered, the harassment of unscrupulous traffickers, after the cold nights at sea and the fear of not arriving. Read more…
The sea is bigger than my eyes by Gerardo Filippini, staff at Casa delle Culture in Scicli, by NEV
My name is Abraham, I am eight years old and come from a country that is very, very far away. My mother and I left our home and, at first, I didn’t really understand where we were going, but wherever my mother goes, I go too. My mother has a big belly, she is pregnant with my little brother. Before leaving, I heard someone tell her that this long journey was not good for her. The child could be born along the route. My mother kept repeating “I’m strong, we’ll make it”. So, we left. Read more…