AFRICA: LIBYA: REFUGEES DEPARTING WITH AID

Agenzia Fides REPORT - “Another 50 refugees from Eritrea and Ethiopia have departed, thanks to the generosity of Italy. But we are in the midst of an apparently neverending challenge, because for every 50 people who depart there are another 2,000 who present themselves. Yesterday the church was invaded by African refugees hoping to find a place on a plane or a ship to leave the Country,” says Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli, Libya, to Fides.
“My greatest wish,” continues Bishop Martinelli, “is that we can find a way to put all these people on a ship bound for a Country that decides to welcome them. It is not right to have them depart in small groups and leave most them waiting in agony, also because they are mainly women and children. Yesterday, a large group of women and children stayed aground, some have been here a few months. Unfortunately, not all the documents were in order and then they were left stranded. I renew my appeal for these people to be accepted by some Countries as soon as possible.”
“As a Church we are a go-between, but our forces are very limited. We help these people to pay the rent and buy food, with the help of some benefactors and Italian Caritas. The problem is that food has become scarce on the market,” says the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli.
Speaking about the the Catholic community, Bishop Martinelli praised “the two thousand Filipino nurses who have remained. Their families, husbands and children have left, but the women and girls have stayed, demonstrating a high sense of professionalism and human conscience. Otherwise without them the hospitals would be bereft of any medical care.” Furthermore, “there are still many Africans. On Ash Wednesday the church was full,” says Archbishop Martinelli. “The faithful come because they find courage in prayer.”
“I repeat that peace is still possible and that the two sides can be reconciled,” concludes the Apostolic Vicar. “We need the intervention of a high moral authority of Arab or African nationality, the level of Nelson Mandela so to speak, to bring the two sides together. Perhaps even some ecclesiastical authority of the Arab world could handle the mediation. The Libyan people do not want war either. Libya must rediscover its unity. There are many people originally from Benghazi living in Tripoli. I do not think that it is possible to separate the Country.”

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