To coincide with the World Day for Refugees on June 20th, a prayer vigil
takes place in Rome for all the refugees who have lost their lives trying to get into
Europe.
Since 1990 over 18,500 people are known to have died on the dangerous
journey from North Africa to Italy, Spain and Malta. The current crises in North Africa
and in the Middle East has led many more people to embark on the risky sea crossing
in dilapidated and overloaded boats. The true death toll is probably higher.
Many
of the refugees originally come from subSaharan Africa, and would have made the long
overland journey to north Africa on foot or by bus, to find work.
The evening
prayer vigil at the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere is organised every year by
the Community of Sant'Egidio in collaboration with the Astalli Centre Association,
the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, the Migrantes Foundation, Italian
Caritas and ACLI.
The vigil, entitled “To die of hope” is lead by Cardinal
Antonio Maria Vegliò, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of
Migrants and Itinerant People.
Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni spoke to St. Egidio's
Cecilia Pani about the prayer vigil and about the scenario behind it...
listen...
Cecilia
explains that St. Egidio has been collecting news about the people who have died,
mainly in the Mediterranean Sea because "we were struck about so many people dying,
but no one knew their names or their stories". The newspapers, she says, carry numbers
and statistics conveying the idea that "some sort of invasion of Italy is taking place.
That's why we started to collect names and stories. On this occasion we remember the
people who disappeared".
These people are men, women, children - even babies
- entire families have disappeared in the waters, coming from all over the world.
Cecilia
says these are people who fled their countries, many of them wanting to ask for asylum,
most of them fleeing dire economic situations. She remembers that Pope Paul VIth called
them "economic refugees" - people escaping not only bhecause of political problems
but because their land gave them no possibility to live.
Cecilia says the ones
who manage to reach our countries are the strongest. "You need money, courage, strength
and good health to undertake this trip".
These people, she points out, allow
us to open our mentality and open our eyes on the future of the world. Our future
in Europe is with other people, she says, in particular with people from Africa. "The
future of Europe is with Africa" - and she refers to the global aging of the European
population and the need we have of young people to work. And she speaks of cultural
awareness, "of course Europe is a continent with a long history, but in the globalised
world we can only develop if we open our borders".
Cecilia says these people
are aware of the dangers they are about to face when they undertake their journey
of hope. Many of them travel for months by all sorts of means.
She remembers
the tragic fate of 2 young boys from Guinea Conacr' in 1999 who hid in the belly of
an airoplane in the attempt to reach Europe to study. Their bodies were discovered
in Brussels many days later...
She says we can do much to avoid this kind of
tragedy. But also, she says "there is place for these people: we need them". We must
not be afraid of "invasions", we must help them cross the borders in a safe way "because
the danger is not for us Europeans, it is for them - for their lives...".