NAIROBI, Kenya (OSV News) – As the United Nations observed World Refugee Day, a Catholic priest who rescues migrants stuck at sea urged African churches to help stop the loss of young people, as many opt for dangerous voyages in search of a dignified future in Europe.
Fr. Mussie Zerai, a priest of the Catholic Archeparchy of Asmara, Eritrea, said the situation of the refugees and migrants traveling to Europe was increasingly difficult, with countries shutting their doors to them.
"Churches in Africa have to fight on two fronts. The first to stop the hemorrhage of young people who leave Africa due to lack of a dignified future," the 49-year-old priest told OSV News ahead of the June 20 U.N. observance.
"Secondly, the African churches must together ask loudly for the respect of the rights and dignity of the children of Africa who are outside the continent," he said.
Fr. Zerai, who now lives in Europe, is also known as the "guardian angel" of refugees or the "migrant priest."
According to Fr. Zerai, with the ongoing war in Ukraine and the refugee crisis accompanying it, Europe has preferred to welcome refugees of European origin, whose citizens are easily integrated.
European countries also sign bilateral agreements with North African governments to block escape routes for African refugees and migrants, the priest added.
"All of these increase the suffering and encourage violations of human rights, (while) increasing the business of human traffickers. The more fortress Europe closes its doors, the more traffickers earn from the skin of refugees," Fr. Zerai said.
The priest has been rescuing refugees and migrants in danger in the Mediterranean Sea. Many of them are fleeing challenges in home countries, including war, poverty and unemployment, persecution, forced military conscription and more recently climate change. The migrants – mainly from sub-Saharan countries – have been trying to enter Europe through the stretch between Italy and North Africa.
Initially, the refugees had undertaken long and dangerous journeys across the Sahara Desert to the Mediterranean Sea shore, where they embarked on dangerous sea voyages using small boats known as pirogue, or narrow canoes, to reach southern Europe.
The Mediterranean Sea crossing has been deadly for migrants. In March, the International Organization for Migration Missing Migrants Project reported that more than 27,000 migrants have died in the Mediterranean Sea over the last decade.
Those who reach Europe face rejection or are being sent to third countries as recently demonstrated by the U.K., Italy and Switzerland, Fr. Zerai lamented.
"(They are) treating migrants and refugees as if they were postal parcels, not human beings. None of the governments ask themselves what happened to the fundamental rights of these people?" he asked during an interview with OSV News, while urging African churches and humanitarian organizations to enforce the rights of African refugees.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, an estimated 117.3 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced by the end of 2023. That number continued to rise through the first few months of 2024, reaching 120 million by May. This was the 12th consecutive annual increase, reflecting both new and mutating conflicts and a failure to resolve long-standing crises.
"Behind these stark and rising numbers lie countless human tragedies. That suffering must galvanize the international community to act urgently to tackle the root causes of forced displacement," said Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement June 18.
Geoffrey Shikuku, director of Jesuit Refugee Service in Kenya, told OSV News that the war in Sudan, the drought that devastated the region in 2023, followed by floods and the instability in Congo, especially its eastern part, have caused aid cuts and contributed to people's decisions to flee.
"For example, refugees (are) crossing from Uganda into Kenya because food rations from the World Food Programme have allegedly been reduced due to funding," he said.
Children are fleeing the conflict, but also the range of physical and emotional abuses. Human rights and humanitarian agencies are currently viewing Sudan as one of the worst places for children to live.
"Children are literally being starved, abused and traumatized by what they are experiencing and witnessing. Many have fled the violence but have been unable to find any real safety," said John Makoni, national director of World Vision, a large Christian charity, which is responding to the crisis in Sudan, alongside Catholic relief agencies. He made the comments in response to questions sent by OSV News.
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