AMERICA/MEXICO - The request for asylum has become a Via crucis for migrants

Friday, 21 June 2019 emigration   refugees   human rights   local churches  

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - "A migration strategy that can go beyond the imposition of tariffs that cause the militarization of borders or the raising of human walls as an immediate response, must be based on human rights and put the migrant at the center of political and social measures and better conditions for an orderly and safe migration": this is what Mgr. José Guadalupe Torres Campos, Bishop of Ciudad Juarez, President of the Dimensión Episcopal de Pastoral de la Movilidad Humana (DEPMH), of the Mexican Bishops' Conference, writes in a message published on the occasion of World Refugee Day.
In the text, sent to Agenzia Fides, the Bishop invites to pay "particular attention to marginalized groups".
The text cites the message of Pope Francis for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2019, and invites us to think of the 258 million people who live outside their countries of origin and emigrate for various reasons, seeking protection and opportunities for a better life. Mgr. Torres Campos claims to know "the migration policies in force in our country, faced with the crisis that exists following the growing number of migrants, who in large caravans or small groups try to cross the national territory". "Many of them - he continues -, knowingly or unknowingly, are candidates for asylum and shelter, both in Mexico and in the United States, but this request has also become a Via crucis for migrants".
The Bishop reiterates that "migration cannot be seen as a problem, but as an opportunity", and underlines that "the lack of a migration coordination system of human rights based at a global, regional and national level is creating a crisis of human rights for migrants, making them increasingly vulnerable, because of their irregular situation, they live and work illegally, fearful of complaining about the abuses they often suffer from service providers, employers and even attacks in civil society" .
World Refugee Day, says Mgr. Torres Campos, "is an opportunity for the Church to raise the voice in favor of those who have no voice, and to invite governments to develop actions that can facilitate the procedures of the request of asylum, as well as to guarantee the human rights of migrants in general, following the recommendations of the Holy Father". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 21/6/2019)


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