Press Releases

Urgent Call for an International Response to Boat People and Other Migrants Injured or Traumatized Crossing Borders

Bishop of Djibouti in Geneva This Week to Make Direct Appeal

A mother thrown overboard in front of her daughter off the coast of Haiti as they attempt to reach Florida; a man whose feet were both amputated after being forced to stand in gasoline in a boat crossing to Europe; 26 shipwrecked human beings clinging to fishing nets and towed for 3 days in the Mediterranean: men, women and children being stabbed, shot, starved or thirsted to near-death, raped, injected with drugs, doused with chemicals and/or abandoned at sea or in the desert. These are not exceptional stories.

These people are victims -and they need care. Medical attention for those physically injured; psycho-social care for those traumatized, and for children unaccompanied by an adult, formal processes to determine what is in the child's best interest. Humanitarian assistance for all.

Today we call for a response that is more than ad hoc, without discrimination, and according to international standards that urgently need to be developed.

Having seen thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians pass through his diocese with the hope of surviving the perilous boat trip across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, Mgr. Giorgio Bertin, Bishop of Djibouti and Apostolic Administrator of Mogadishu, will visit Geneva from 26-28 September to challenge UN leaders and the international community to address this suffering. Bishop Bertin will be speaking at a conference at the International Conference Center of Geneva on Wednesday, 26 September. A member of the International Catholic Migration Commission, he joins other ICMC members and partners in Europe, Australia and the Americas in calling for attention to this issue.

"While the UN refugee agency and other organizations work to offer protection and other services specifically to refugees and asylum seekers in these circmunstances," observes Johan Ketelers, Secretary General of ICMC, "international, nondiscriminatory standards are essential for assistance to any migrant injured or traumatized crossing borders, whether they have a claim to refugee status or not." Mr. Ketelers points to the increasing organization of psycho-social and other services for victims of human trafficking, survivors of torture and others suffering from war and natural disasters as the kind of response needed for all migrants who are victims of violence crossing borders.