Holy See’s Observer to UN pleads for migrants

(April 25, 2013) “Situations of unsustainable socio-economic insecurity and poverty have forced numerous individuals and families and entire communities, to pursue their destinies in foreign lands for a more secure future,” said Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations. Addressing on Wednesday the 46^th session of the Commission on Population and Development at UN headquarters in New York, Archbishop Chullikatt noted that the current state of migration presents a social phenomenon of epoch-making proportions. He said families are divided, children are rendered vulnerable, labourers face abuse without recourse to remedies, and migrants are incarcerated without due respect for their human rights and dignity. Women migrants, in particular face threats of sexual abuse and trafficking, as if they were mere commodities.
Archbishop Chullikatt said solutions to problems that migration provokes for millions of our brothers and sisters, ought to be far-reaching and sustainable, if they are not to worsen an already tragic situation for many. He said migrants count among “the simple, humble, the poor and the forgotten,” that Pope Francis pleaded for in his recent Palm Sunday Homily. Pointing out that migrants are all members of the human family, struggling to face challenges in harsh conditions, Archbishop Chullikatt said his delegation will continue to advocate for and provide economic, social, political, cultural, ethical and religious resources for migrants, regardless of their legal status. The prelate hoped that the UN session may find the political, legal and economic will necessary, to make a lasting difference for the migrants and refugees longing for a better life.