The young are at the forefront of the global migration currently underway, reports Patrick McDonnell and Nabih Bulos in the Los Angeles Times.

“They are converging on the U.S. border and on multiple entry points to Europe, from the English Channel to the Mediterranean to the continent’s eastern flanks. Many hail from regions with predominantly youthful populations, median ages typically in the low 20s, well below those in Western Europe and the United States,” the story notes.

Almost 80% of more than 5.5 million first-time asylum seekers in Europe since 2014 were 34 or younger, according to Eurostat, the statistical branch of the European Union. Close to one-third were under 18, the story notes.

A recent article published in the New Yorker sheds light on the inhumane conditions that migrants from Africa are facing in Libyan prisons.

“In the past six years, the European Union, weary of the financial and political costs of receiving migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, has created a shadow immigration system that stops them before they reach Europe,” writes Ian Urbina.

International aid agencies have documented an array of abuses,Urbina reports, including detainees tortured with electric shocks, families extorted for ransom and men and women sold into forced labor.

“The E.U. did something they carefully considered and planned for many years,” Salah Marghani, Libya’s Minister of Justice from 2012 to 2014, told Urbina. “Create a hellhole in Libya, with the idea of deterring people from heading to Europe.”

Pope Francis marked his 85th birthday on Dec. 17 by meeting with 10 refugees who arrived in Italy from Cyprus on Dec. 16, the National Catholic Reporter notes in an article.

A communique from the Holy See Press Office said the migrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Somalia and Syria will be supported directly by Francis. The international Community of Sant’Egidio will be responsible for their integration program, which will take a year. 

As Afghan refugees are released from U.S. military bases “to start rebuilding their lives in the United States, they are bumping up against an unexpected obstacle: the housing crisis,” reports Miriam Jordan in the New York Times.

“Resettlement agencies have been scrambling to find rentals in cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix and St. Louis as well in towns like Owensboro and Reno, Nev., where lease properties are in short supply, expensive or both. The coronavirus pandemic, complaints of discrimination and the sheer number of newly arriving Afghans have also posed challenges,” Jordan notes.

According to the article, as of Monday, more than 40,000 Afghans had completed their processing and departed for new homes, while another 30,000 remained on seven military bases “that the government hopes to empty as soon as possible.”

For months, Afghan evacuees have been living in temporary camps on U.S. military bases. “Now, as they move into permanent homes, some will be heading to communities with long histories of offering refuge to people fleeing danger. But not necessarily to the bustling and multicultural cities you may imagine,” National Geographic notes in a recent article about refugee resettlement in the U.S.

“In small town America, refugee resettlement programs have won over residents by reversing population declines and replenishing shrinking labor pools, data show. Religious traditions that encourage care for foreigners, as well as close-knit communities, have proved conducive to forming neighborly bonds,” reports Nina Strochlic in her article.

The first follow-up to the Global Refugee Forum starts Dec. 14. The meeting, a two-day virtual event, will bring together senior government officials, refugees and various stakeholders, to take stock of progress on how the world responds to refugee situations.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is co-hosting the meeting together with Switzerland. It will be opened by the President-elect of the Swiss Confederation, Ignazio Cassis and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.

The meeting is one of the main vehicles for follow-up and review under the Global Compact on Refugees. Under the Compact, Global Refugee Forums are to be held every four years while the High-Level Officials Meeting are to be held two years later from each Forum.

Additional information about the Global Refugee Forum is available here.

This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for refugee resettlement in the U.S., leaders of three refugee groups argue in a recent opinion piece for Religion News Service.

About 35,000 Afghan evacuees are still waiting on U.S. military bases for the chance to be resettled in communities where they can start their new lives, note Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS, Richard Santos, president and CEO of Church World Service, and Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

.”Each of our organizations has deployed staff members to the military bases to help with processing and welcoming Afghan families. They have told us about the inspiring resilience, strength and optimism they have encountered there,” they wrote.

Military bases were never meant to be a long-term solution, they note. “It is time for these families to finally start the next chapter of their lives in their new homes. As the leaders of three of the nation’s nine resettlement agencies, we know resettling these newest neighbors will require all the resources, creativity and compassion the United States has to offer. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for refugee resettlement in this country.”

After nearly five years of historically low refugee arrivals, “our local partners are just now rebuilding. They are hiring staff; contacting landlords, employers and schools; and otherwise getting ready to welcome Afghan families into their communities. While they are working around the clock to prepare and welcome Afghan families, we simply can’t do it all on our own.”

Across the nation, “Americans from all backgrounds must come together to welcome Afghan families.”

Click here for the full opinion piece.

 

One of the many things that continues to impress me about Pope Francis is his unwavering commitment to the plight of refugees and migrants.

In traveling to Cyprus, Francis “has sought to inspire the country, a European Union member state, to embrace its history as a crossroads for different cultures, enriched by new migrants, and to be a model for the rest of Europe,” the New York Times reported.

Francis arrived in Cyprus on Thursday, “beginning a five-day trip that would also bring him to Greece and its island of Lesbos, where in 2016 he made a defining visit to refugees living in horrid conditions and brought some back to Rome on his plane,” the Times noted. The trip “reflects his determination to maintain a global focus on the plight of migrants and lands torn by strife.”

In an address to participants at the 2021 Rome MED – Mediterranean Dialogues, Francis

The Pope said that the events of past years have shown that “effective intervention can only result from a combined effort” by not only the border countries but also the continents of which they are a part of. He added that the migration issue shows us that “everything is connected” and that any stable solution calls for “an approach capable of taking into account its multiple aspects.”

“No one should be left alone to manage this enormous problem,” the Pope said. “Everyone needs to feel responsible, for everyone is in fact responsible, as we are reminded by God’s question to Cain in the first pages of the Bible: “Where is your brother?”