“Italy proposes to Europe to welcome on a large scale those in need of humanitarian protection to welcome and integrate them”
C. CTC Rubini, Vatican News
Marco Impagliazzo, President of the Community of Sant’Egidio, welcomed the 152 Afghan refugees who arrived this morning from Pakistan through the humanitarian corridors thanks to the code of conduct of the Italian government and the collaboration of the Italian Embassy in Islamabad, stating that Italy should guide the humanitarian corridors in Europe and should no longer be proposed to the European Union as an experimental project but as a concrete project.
Also present to welcome the refugees were Giuseppe Bathuri, general secretary of the Italian Episcopal Commission, Libero Ciuffreda, member of the FCEI Council, and Filippo Mirallia, national coordinator for immigration of the RC.
Impagliaso told them that in August 2021, when Afghanistan’s borders were closed, they had not forgotten them, remembering the promise they had made that they would not be forgotten, and that they were happy to welcome them today by preparing a home for them, and to help them build a common future here in Italy.
Afghan citizens who have been refugees in Pakistan for more than a year will be welcomed by institutions, monasteries, communities and individual citizens in various Italian regions. The goal is to send the minors to schools, teach Italian to others, and then work on permits for refugees.
More than 5,300 refugees have arrived in Europe, of which more than 1,800 are citizens of Ukraine. They are welcomed by the community of Sant’Egidio in various European countries. More people from Lebanon and Libya are expected to arrive in Rome in the coming days.
