Meeting Refugees, Pope Urges Legal Routes for Migrants

Humanitarian corridors save lives and promote integration, Francis says
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 18, 2023 2:10 PM CDT
Pope Tells Refugees He Supports Legal Corridors for Migrants
Thousands fill Paul VI hall at the Vatican on Saturday for a session with Pope Francis.   (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis met Saturday with thousands of refugees and the charity groups helping them as he sought to promote legal migration routes to Europe as an alternative to smuggling operations that he said have turned the Mediterranean Sea into a "cemetery." Francis said "humanitarian corridors," which have operated in Italy since 2016, saved lives and helped newly arrived migrants become acclimated while church groups provided housing, education, and work opportunities. "Humanitarian corridors not only aim to bring refugees to Italy and other European countries, rescuing them from situations of uncertainty, danger, and endless waiting; they also work toward integration," he said.

The Sant'Egidio Catholic charity, the Federation of Evangelical Churches, and the Waldensian Church spearheaded the ecumenical humanitarian transfer initiative in Italy, which has brought more than 6,000 people to Europe, Francis was told. Families from Syria, Afghanistan, Rwanda, and Ukraine were in the Vatican auditorium to meet with the pope. "It was important for me to come here to show the world that humanitarian corridors are one of the most beautiful things this world has to offer for people who deserve” safety and dignity, Oliver Chris I. Kabalisa, a 22-year-old from Rwanda, said. "Because as a refugee, we do not leave our country because we want to, but because we are constrained, we are forced to."

Afghan refugee Nazani Shakvulla said women in her country were suffering, barred from education, work, and travel, and need help from the Vatican and charity groups "to support the humanitarian corridors and find a way to evacuate or find a way that girls in Afghanistan get education." Since 2014, the UN says, more than 26,000 people have been killed trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, per AFP. (More Pope Francis stories.)

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