How Evangelical Church Groups in Italy Plan to Help Curtail "Voyages of Death" in the Refugee Crisis

Julie Brown Patton : Jan 25, 2016
Gospel Herald

"It's an exemplary agreement to avoid the 'voyages of death' and exploitation by traffickers."

A pilot project intended to relocate 1,000 refugees to Italy on humanitarian visas is being finalized through an Italian ecumenical mission in Lebanon this week. The $1.42 million program is being largely financed by Waldensian Evangelical Church supporters, one of the religious groups that Italian taxpayers can select to receive a small percentage of their federal income taxes. (Photo via Gospel Herald)

While organizers of the initiative are Christian, candidates for transfer include both Christians and Muslims, organizers said.

Leaders of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy and the Rome-based Catholic Sant'Egidio Community joined to ask Italian government officials to grant 1,000 humanitarian visas for refugees in camps in Lebanon, Morocco and Ethiopia, reports Journal Tribune.

The first goal is to airlift an initial group of about 100 of the most vulnerable refugees, most of them Syrians who are sick, disabled or elderly, or women alone with young children, from a Lebanese camp by the end of January or early February, said Marco Impagliazzo, president of the Sant'Egidio Community.

"It's an exemplary agreement to avoid the 'voyages of death' and exploitation by traffickers," Impagliazzo told The Associated Press. He added that he hoped Italy would offer more such visas, noting that "vulnerable" people can encompass many refugees today, and other...

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