Rome (NEV), November 30, 2016 – The Chamber of Deputies last November 8th, approved a motion which commits the Government to “increase and support at European and international level, taking into account the positive results already achieved, the experience of humanitarian corridors as a form of safe journey towards Italy and Europe, for the most vulnerable categories of Syrian refugees, coming from camps of neighboring countries of war areas”. The vote of the Chamber of Deputies in favor of the model of ‘humanitarian corridors’ is undoubtedly a great encouragement for the organizers who have already received 500 refugees from Lebanon.
In recent days also the Italian Bishop’s Conference (CEI), together with Caritas, Migrantes Foundation and St. Egidio, announced the engagement to support new humanitarian corridors for other 500 refugees from Ethiopia.
On 24th November last, at the National Research Council (CNR) of Rome, a seminar was held on humanitarian corridors addressed to some experts of migration policies, thus confirming that this project is also a model of intervention on the issue of global migration.
Finally at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on occasion of the seminar “Open doors” (28-30 November 2016), Ambassador Cristina Ravaglia, who chaired the conference – defined the humanitarian corridors as “the initiative which has made closer Institutions and civil society”.
Paolo Naso, coordinator of Mediterranean Hope-Refugees and Migrants Program of FCEI, commented: “These are important results we assess with satisfaction for at least two reasons: the first is that others are following the path we’ve identified and beaten; the second is that a courageous ecumenical experience was able to activate the direct involvement of the Italian Catholic Church, the Chamber of Deputies and other Institutions. This example is a measure of the strength and the potential of the ecumenical movement which, when it finds courage, has a chance to precede and anticipate decisions at institutional levels”. “As envisaged in the memorandum of understanding with the concerned Ministries – continued Naso – in the coming months it will be possible to open other corridors from countries such as Morocco and Ethiopia. We will then enter in a new phase of the project in which we will be confronted with situations different from those of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon. As Christians we cannot be limited by the logics of geopolitical opportunity and we are to look at those who, among refugees and migrants, are the weakest and most forgotten ones”.
