Rome (NEV), 31 January 2018 – Last Tuesday thirty Syrians arrived in Rome-Fiumicino by airlift from Beirut (Lebanon) thanks to the “Humanitarian Corridors”, an ecumenical project run by Italian Protestants and Catholics. This was the first group of 2018, and the first group of the “second protocol”.
The families – which have been living for years in dramatic situations in refugee camps – were greeted at the airport by the organizers of the Humanitarian Corridors project. Pastor Luca Maria Negro and Marco Impagliazzo, respectively presidents of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI) and of the Community of Sant’Egidio, together with Deputy Foreign Minister Mario Giro, expressed great satisfaction for the goals achieved.
In the last two years, a thousand refugees arrived by these means to Italy and were assisted and integrated into society. In the next two years, an other 970 vulnerable refugees will arrive in a safe and legal manner.
The day before, on January 29th, 40 Syrians arrived in France from Lebanon by the same means: this was the third airlift to Paris; whereas in Belgium the very first “Humanitarian corridor” was welcomed on Christmas Eve.
In a world where borders are increasingly difficult to cross, this model of Ecumenical solidarity – “which creates security for those who come, and for those who welcome” – has been underlined by Mario Giro.
These families are now hosted in Lazio, Veneto, Umbria, Marche, Tuscany and Trento. They are entrusted to the Community of Sant’Egidio and their partners.
