#HumanitarianCorridors. After Italy and France a similar project also in Belgium

On November 22nd the signing of the protocol in Brussels. Pastor Luca Maria Negro, president of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy: “A victory of the conscientious Europe”

Fiumicino, 30 January 2017 (photo: D. Mazzarella)

Rome (NEV), November 27, 2017 – The Italian ecumenical model of the “humanitarian corridors” continues to be an example in Europe: after France a similar project is now starting in Belgium to accommodate 150 Syrian refugees from Lebanon and Turkey.
The signing of the protocol was scheduled on November 22nd  at the presence, among others, of the State Secretary for Asylum and Migration, Theo Francken (N-VA), and Hilde Kieboom, president of the Community of St. Egidio in Belgium.

The reception of the refugees will be interreligious, which represents an innovation in relation to the Italian and the French projects. The families will be entrusted to the Committee of “Together in Peace”, an organization which gathers Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Orthodox and Anglican churches as well as the Jewish and Muslim Communities of the Country. A 100 asylum seekers will be hosted by the Belgian Bishops’ Conference in collaboration with Caritas.

Pastor Luca Maria Negro – president of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI) which is among the promoters, together with the Waldensian Board and the Community of St. Egidio, of the Italian “humanitarian corridors” – expressed great satisfaction for the expansion of the project in Belgium and underlined the great importance of its sharing by the different political parties, all agreeing  about the need to grant safe and legal pathways to asylum seekers in particularly vulnerable conditions. “This pioneering project that Italian Protestants contributed to start, is now spreading in other European Countries, thus showing that the human rights consciousness of many in Europe is more creative and dynamic than the European institutions”, concluded Negro.

In Italy on November 7th, at the Ministry of the Interior, the protocol for the Italian ecumenical humanitarian corridors was renewed for another 1000 beneficiaries for the next two years.