On World Refugee Day (June 20) Caritas Internationalis wants to highlight the strength and courage of millions of people worldwide who have left their homelands and have undertaken dangerous journeys to escape conflict, persecution or violence, extreme poverty, natural disasters or climate change. In over 200 countries, Caritas is a witness to the inspiring hope and resilience of displaced men, women and children rebuilding their lives in new countries.
A shared response: to welcome, to protect, to promote and to integrate.
I believe that conjugating these four verbs, in the first person singular and in the first person plural, is today a responsibility, a duty we have towards our brothers and sisters who, for various reasons, have been forced to leave their homeland: a duty of justice, of civility and of solidarity. (Pope Francis)
In 2017, at an International Forum on Migration and Peace organised by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Pope Francis spoke of the “urgency for a coordinated and effective response” to the challenge of forced migration. Political actors, civil society and the Church need to work together to protect the human rights of refugees and support them in their search for peace and safety away from their countries of origin.
To welcome
The escalating conflict and violence in Ukraine has forced millions of people to cross country borders to find peace and safety in neighbouring countries. Caritas Moldova has been hosting thousands of refugees from Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022, providing accommodation, meals, emotional, legal and medical support. Now, eight national refugee centres have been established to create spaces of warm welcome and personal encounter.
Photo Credit: Caritas Moldova.
“Thanks to Caritas Moldova and other volunteers we felt we were not strangers but needed, that we were people, that we were there, it wasn’t just nice. You won’t find such words of gratitude, and simple words of gratitude are hard to describe. It’s impossible to convey the feelings of gratitude, it’s just not enough.” – Iulia Khalaim
To protect
Since 2017, intense persecution and violence has forced nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to cross the border into Bangladesh. Cox’s Bazar is the world’s largest refugee settlement and nearly 600,000 inhabitants residing in temporary camps throughout the district are children. The impact of natural disasters (such as major flooding and a cyclone) has only further compromised the safety and dignity of Rohingya refugees, particularly children, who are displaced in a foreign country.
Photo Credit: Caritas – Tommy Trenchard.
Those children had no legal papers but now they are documented at camp for Caritas Bangladesh. I feel proud and honored that I contributed to child protection and for me some children are saved. I will continue such activities to change my society.” – Abul Basar in ‘Giving Hope’
The book depicts an elaborate description of the four-year-long interventions under the Emergency Response Program (ERP) of Caritas Bangladesh (CB) in Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh. Caritas Bangladesh’s ED Mr Sebastian Rozario unveiled the book on 9th January 2022.
To promote
In collaboration with other networks such as RED CLAMOR and the Africa-Europe Network for Human Mobility (RAEMH), Caritas works alongside refugee-led organisations and community-based initiatives, such as Arising Africans, to promote the full inclusion of refugees in building fraternal and inclusive communities in our societies. Refugees should be protagonists in decision-making and the political debate that directly affects them.
“In Arising Africans we decided to concentrate ourselves on counter-narration. So we said there’s a great interest for Africa and also for the presence of Africans here in Italy but what is still missing is this narrative space. What we can do is create it ourselves – this narrative space – we can tell our lives, our experiences” – Ada Ugo Abara, President of Arising Africans
To integrate
Nearly 7 million Venezuelans have fled their country in recent years leaving children in the care of the elderly and neighbours. Between 2014-2021, Venezuela suffered progressive and massive impoverishment of the population fuelled by an escalating economic and humanitarian crisis. The MigraSegura Platform is a website where foreign citizens can access safe and reliable information about the host countries Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.
“Our Venezuelan migrant brothers and sisters will be able to find information about their basic rights, humanitarian services and about the country they are migrating to, such as safe routes and transport, legal border crossings and required documentation, humanitarian services at the border, risks in irregular border crossings, temperature and currency. They will also have access to news about the programmes and projects that Caritas is developing in favour of migrants in the three countries” – Yeri Cornejo Salas, coordinator of the Migrasegura CARITAS project in Peru.