Agreement on Migrants invites Church anger: 'Manus island another Lampedusa
Port Moresby July 25, 2013: An agreement signed between Australia and Papua New Guinea
for the absorption of refugees, has sparked the anger and dismay of Fr. Phillip Gibbs
a long time missionary in Papuan land, who has recalled the 'globalization of indifference'
condemned by Pope Francis on his recent trip to Lampedusa. " Our Holy Father Pope
Francis recently thanked the people of Lampedusa for taking in refugees and setting
an example of solidarity to a selfish society sliding into "the globalization of indifference
- he writes in his capacity as Secretary of the Commission for Social Issues at the
Bishops' Conference - call the Church and the people to insist for a humane solution.
"
Friday, July 19, Kevin Rudd and Peter O'Neill - Prime Ministers of Australia
and Papua New Guinea - agreed that all refugees who land on Australian shores will
be shipped to the Papuan island of Manus. The asylum-seeker processing centre on the
island of Manus, after having studied all the individual asylum applications, will
then distribute suitable cases between Papua and other Pacific islands. The measure,
which Canberra has justified as a "preventive measure against clandestine smuggling
and continuous ship wrecks from attempted landings in Australia," has also garnered
criticism High Commission for Refugees at the United Nations, which warns of a social
destabilization of the same island of Manus.
Fr. John Glynn, of the Papuan
Episcopal Conference, was one of the first Irish missionaries to help street children
in Port Moresby and is well aware of the social and economic problems that plague
the island. He now asks "how it is possible to think that Papua can absorb such a
flow of refugees, when the same country is in need of jobs, health care and education
for its own citizens". Papua New Guinea is the poorest among the islands that are
located off the coast of Australia, but many agree that, in the region, it can boast
one of the most advanced constitutions in terms of migration policies. However, as
raised by Fr. Glynn, considering the backwardness of the economic and social structures,
it is impossible to claim that the nation has the means to accommodate thousands of
refugees each year (15 thousand in just the past 12 months).
"Refugees have
made an enormous contribution to Australia and could do the same here. - adds Fr.
Gibbs, who criticized the agreement between the two countries as the more powerful
neighbour enslaving the weaker nation - but an agreement that aims to bring a person
within a nations borders against his or her own will, is offensive to the country
itself and will seriously damage its international image".
On July 8, Pope
Francis travelled to the island of Lampedusa, where every year tens of thousands of
migrants land, to "raise awareness" and express his closeness to those who braved
the sea and those who welcome them . On that occasion, celebrating mass close to the
'cemetery of the boats', the Holy Father condemned the 'globalization of indifference',
which has deprived us of the "ability to cry" and "our fraternal sense of responsibility."