Daily Archives: August 31, 2015

Migration

Asylum Seekers are not a threat – Our policies are a threat to them!

Caritas Europa

mig-92Caritas Europa mourns the loss of 50 lives of asylum seekers in Austria and over 200 off Libyan shore in the last 48 hours. Their death would have been avoided if a common European safe and legal access pathway were in place. “Fortress Europe” is steadily transforming into “Undertaker Europe”. Caritas Europa calls for an immediate implementation of a European refugee project based on solidarity and defense of the dignity of every human being.

“We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery”, said Pope Francis when addressing the European Institutions in November 2014. Known as the “route of death”, refugees have renamed the path between North Africa and Europe “the grave of the Mediterranean sea”.
“The stench of the bodies of the men, women and children found in the truck in Austria impregnates all of us. This cannot continue this way. More controls, security measures and armed forces presence will not stop this. Europe needs to act on a humanitarian approach basis in Europe and in the affected countries,” said Jorge Nuño Mayer, Secretary General of Caritas Europa.
Caritas calls for: Continue reading Asylum Seekers are not a threat – Our policies are a threat to them! →

Migration

Global Response to People Fleeing Ravages of War: ‘Callous Indifference,’ Humanitarian Failure

Common Dreams

Boat tragedy in Libya, corpses of refugees in truck in Austria reminders of human cost of war, lack of humanitarian responses

A Syrian father carries his daughter on 8 August 2015 to Gevgelija train station in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia where they will register with the authorities before proceeding north towards Serbia. (Photo: Stephen Ryan / IFRC via flickr)
A Syrian father carries his daughter on 8 August 2015 to Gevgelija train station in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia where they will register with the authorities before proceeding north towards Serbia. (Photo: Stephen Ryan / IFRC via flickr)

Andrea Germanos
It’s a crisis of record proportions that is being met with global “callous indifference” and failed, dehumanizing responses, human rights experts say.

The crisis, described as Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War Two, involves hundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict, many from Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, trying to reach safety in Europe.

For some, the journey reaches a fatal end. As the Associated Press notes, the deaths come “by land and sea.”

Austrian officials said Friday that 71 likely Syrian refugees, including eight women and three children, died in the back of a truck that was abandoned in Hungary. Continue reading Global Response to People Fleeing Ravages of War: ‘Callous Indifference,’ Humanitarian Failure →

Nigeria

Nigerian Cardinal Joins #BringBackOurGirls to Mark 500 Days of Captivity

America Magazine

Nigerian Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, center, stands between leaders of the
Nigerian Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, center, stands between leaders of the “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign during an event marking the one-year anniversary of the advocacy group’s call for the release of the 200 abducted Chibok school girls in Abuja, Nigeria, April 30. (CNS photo/Afolabi Sotunde, Reuter)

ABUJA, Nigeria (CNS) — Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja and Sheik Nura Khalid, chief imam of Apo Legislators Quarters Jumu’at Mosque, joined the members of the #BringBackOurGirls movement Aug. 27 to mark the 500 days that more than 200 girls of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, who were abducted by Boko Haram in their dormitory in Borno state April 14, 2014.

Speaking during the commemoration, Cardinal Onaiyekan expressed sadness that the students were still in the hands of their captors.
“The Joint Task Force kept telling us that it had combed the Sambisa Forest where the abductors alleged to have kept the children, but we have not got an inkling regarding their whereabouts,” he said.

He expressed hope that the 500 days would be a symbolic catalyst to move the Nigerian community into recognizing the serious problem on its hands and finding a solution.

“I have always identified with this group. That is the reason I came this day; we are commemorating the 500 days they, Chibok girls, were abducted. This is a serious matter. Our girls taken from us,” the cardinal said.
“I am here because I am worried about the girls whose condition we don’t even know. We don’t even know what state they are in, and it is painful,” he said.

Cardinal Onaiyekan called on Nigerians to understand the magnitude of the issue of the abduction and pray for the students’ safe return. Continue reading Nigerian Cardinal Joins #BringBackOurGirls to Mark 500 Days of Captivity →