The Catholic Church today celebrates the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. The commemoration aims at increasing awareness of the phenomenon of migration, as contemporary movements represent the largest movement of individuals, if not of peoples, in history.
Indeed, in our time, one person in seven is an international (240 million) or internal migrant (700 million). Not all of them escape life-threatening conditions, but many of them do.
Having faced ever new and challenging situations during its millennial history, the Church knows that migration poses fresh challenges not only on account of its magnitude but also for the various social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it gives rise to.
The role the Church has identified for itself in the situation is reflected in the theme chosen for this year’s celebration: Church without frontiers, Mother to all.
This role includes the duty to make efforts to ensure that the dignity and the centrality of the human person is protected, to actively promote more creative and concrete forms of solidarity, acceptance and protection, and to encourage effective dialogue between peoples.
With this in mind, the Church continues to strive to understand the causes of migration, to work towards overcoming its negative effects, and to maximise its positive influence on the communities of origin, transit and destination.
“The reality of migration, given its new dimensions in our age of globalisation, needs to be approached and managed in a new, equitable and effective manner; more than anything, this calls for international cooperation and a spirit of profound solidarity and compassion,” says Pope Francis in a message for today’s occasion.
As the surge in the number of recent conflicts has produced new waves of asylum seekers and displaced people, there is an increasingly urgent need to intensify the efforts to promote a gradual reduction in the root causes of migration that cause entire peoples to abandon their homelands.
States and their people cannot risk becoming indifferent to human tragedy
Forced migration due to persecution, conflicts, terrorism and other tragedies takes the form of fleeing for salvation, often involving dangerous or life-threatening journeys which may nonetheless offer the only option for reaching a country where protection and the possibility of a dignified life can be found.
Many people in these conditions very often become extremely vulnerable and, in their search for protection, become easy prey to smugglers and traffickers.
The Church is therefore appealing to States to respond effectively to the recognition of the need for protection, to restore human dignity to those who need it, and to treat the causes of forced mobility by cooperating in a spirit of international solidarity.
In the social doctrine of the Church the theme of human dignity derives from the recognition that all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God.
Religious, ethnic, social or cultural variables, citizenship or lack of it, do not change this fact that gives any individual an inherent and immeasurable worth and dignity to the point that each human life is considered sacred.
Emigration, when it is a response to the need of survival from extreme poverty and hunger, from threats to life, from generalised violence and similar conditions, cannot be prevented.
States and their people therefore cannot risk becoming used to or indifferent to such human tragedy. The principle of human dignity implies that the vital needs of the person have to be assured.
Pope Francis said that migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity. They are children, women and men who leave or who are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share a legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being more.
In this context, the recent announcement that this year the Maltese government will be launching a national policy on the integration of migrants is very welcome. Such a policy should prove to be another important step in the solidarity response our small nation has endeavoured to design, build and sustain over the past years, to provide international protection to those who need it and reach our shores.
cphbuttigieg@gmail.com
Charles Buttigieg was the first Refugee Commissioner in Malta.