Rome (NEV), October 1st, 2020 – by Fiona Kendall* – Five years on from their inception, a Zoom webinar provided an opportunity to review and reflect on Humanitarian Corridors, the highly-regarded model for reception pioneered by FCEI and the Comunità di Sant’Egidio.
The webinar, hosted by Regione Piemonte, gathered together key stakeholders, whose differing perspectives provided key insights. The programme’s personal significance was powerfully driven home by the contribution from Hanna Khoury, a highly-motivated refugee from Homs now studying political science at the University of Turin.
Concluding with the phrase “la vita deve continuare, non serve a piangersi adosso”, his “can-do” attitude and determination to build a life in Italy typify the programme’s focus on achieving autonomy. The webinar’s primary focus was the presentation by Confronti/IDOS of the findings of their in-depth research, soon to be published as “Sponsoring Integration: Impact Assessment of the Humanitarian Corridors Program in Italy and France”.
Conducted within the ambit of an AMIF project funded by the European Commission, this important research analyses the perspectives of participants, operators, partners and observers. It confirms Humanitarian Corridors as a model of best practice, in particular, in relation to integration. As confirmed by Antonio Ricci, “Far from being a simple “helping hand” by faith-based organisations to mitigate derelict migration policies, the model has proved itself to be professional, capable of scrutiny and an effective challenge to existing inefficient and fear-based EU policies”. Whilst this is no surprise to those directly involved in the programme, the publication of the research is very timely. Within the last week, the EU Commission has published its proposals for the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, which include the expansion of pledges for resettlement and complementary pathways, support for community and private sponsorship schemes and the aim of developing a European model of community sponsorship leading to better integration outcomes in the longer term. The call for European Humanitarian Corridors, first articulated by FCEI last summer, grows louder.
More info: https://ppiproject.org
*European and Legal Affairs Advisor FCEI
