Historian Marco Impagliazzo, who is also the president of the Community of Sant'Egidio, tells us about the humanitarian corridors that have so far brought 2,500 people to safety: "There are Syrian children who have never known a day of peace: they were born into the war, which began seven years ago. We have taken in juveniles who have never attended school."
Where did people start organising the trips of hope?
"We posed the problem, as the Community of Sant'Egidio, in October 2015 after the shipwreck off Lampedusa, where more than 350 migrants died. Working on the legal level, we found the appropriate tool in Article 25 of the European Union Visa Decree. The provision states that any EU country can grant humanitarian protection visas outside the Schengen Treaty visas, which provides limited territoriality. Together with the Italian Evangelical Churches, we approached the ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs, which accepted our hypothesis: one thousand visas that concern Syrian refugees who are settled in camps in Lebanon."
By which criteria do you choose the recipients?
"The basic criterion is vulnerability. This means women with children, the elderly, and sick people. We rely on some NGOs that have been working on this side for years, including the Pope John XXIII Community. They emphasized the most vulnerable people: individuals who are verified and checked before departure and when they arrive at their destination. They travel legally and each of them is sponsored by parishes, associations, and families who have offered to give them hospitality and integration. Hospitality and integration must be considered together, as Pope Francis has said. Everything is at the expense of donors and the State pays nothing. We have 1,800 refugees in Italy and 700 in France. There is also the need to add the migrants from the Horn of Africa through the humanitarian corridor we organized with the IEC. For instance, the 22 refugees were welcomed by the Pope and entrusted to us, and two families were hosted in San Marino. We will even sign an agreement with Andorra in early May."
There are two million refugees in Lebanon.
"The commitment of this country, unlike Europe, is admirable because we are faced with exceptional numbers. However, these people live in truly makeshift conditions: more than actual refugee camps, I would say they are a collection of shacks, which are scattered a bit everywhere, from the border with Syria to Beirut and other cities. Among the Syrians, there is a little bit of everything. Most people lost what they had due to the war: professionals, small businessmen, traders, hawkers, and laborers. These are largely individuals who had jobs, and women who lost their husbands in the war. Those who were able to take their belongings with them rented a house in Lebanon."
Meanwhile, the escalation of weapons continues.
"Unfortunately, this is the case: the use of weapons is still something that goes against peacebuilding. Instead, we firmly believe in the need for dialogue and diplomacy. We need to stop the weapons and get around a table. There are many actors because it is a set of conflicts. Hence, the situation is complex because of the geopolitical and power issues and, not least, the internal conflict in the Muslim world between Sunnis and Shiites. There is a further obstacle whose importance we do not always feel: the opacity of information that does not allow us to understand, discern, and evaluate. We do not know what is going on, the responsibilities of the individual protagonists, nor do we know what is happening in Syrian prisons, where -from the account of refugees- there are terrible violations of human rights. Nonetheless, we know that there is so much violence, death, and destruction: that is what we should be dealing with."
Meanwhile, Europe has become a legally inaccessible destination.
"Europe comes out very badly. It has closed its heart, particularly the Eastern countries that did not want to take in those groups of refugees who agreed to be relocated and are now situated in camps in Turkey. We keep giving three billion euros a year to Ankara because it is a way to not make them come to Europe. A short-sighted policy, since in any case, the pressures at the borders are worsening, the suffering is increasing, the war in Syria is not ending and neither are the poverty and conflicts in the Horn of Africa. In Libya, the institutional and on-the-ground framework remains unstable and very fragile. At the same time, the landings continue and humanity fleeing from the hinterland is forced to live in collection centers with inhumane conditions. Thus, the situation is not improving, and the small refugee camps, which are a kind of humanitarian outposts set up by UN agencies, are in no condition to reverse a negative trend. What the Community of Sant'Egidio does is important, but it is a drop in the ocean. Humanitarian corridors should be set up more structurally and massively and quotas for economic migrants, which are now exhausted, should be reopened, especially since stopping legal flows fuels human trafficking. Every country needs migrants, and we have to protect the tens of thousands who need protection. We would need European action and an awareness of an indispensable mission. Instead, we have a policy of closure, which serves neither us nor them."
Franco Cattaneo in L'Eco di Bergamo - translation by staff
L'Eco di Bergamo interviews Marco Impagliazzo
