Migrants, Grim Statistics, & Hospitality

                                                                                    Alan Kurdi 

 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me...

                                  Matthew 25: 34-36

When the world saw the lifeless body of two-year-old Alan Kurdi washed up on the beach of a Greek island in September of 2015 it was the catalyst for many individuals, groups, and nations to respond. I was still in congregational ministry at the time and a member contacted me about the possibility of sponsorship for Syrian refugees. This was a few months before the Canadian government began its concerted collaboration with sponsors across the country who brought tens of thousands of refugees to begin a new life in this country. Thanks to the remarkable efforts of a coalition of faith groups and others the first family of five arrived in December of that year and eventually 23 members of the extended family settled here. 

Yesterday I saw that United Nations researchers have estimated the number of migrant deaths in the past eight years although they concede that getting accurate figures is a challenge. According to a CBC piece:

 More than 29,000 migrants have died trying to reach Europe since 2014, with 5,000 deaths in the last two years, the International Organization for Migration said in a report Tuesday.

The United Nations agency's Missing Migrants Project spoke of "increasing numbers of deaths seen on routes across the Mediterranean, on land borders to Europe and within the continent."

According to its report, the deadliest migration route continues to be the Central Mediterranean, where 2,836 people have died since January 2021 attempting to reach Italy or Malta, mainly from Libya and Tunisia.

We know that a number of European countries have made it much more difficult and therefore dangerous to enter their borders. Not-so-Great Britain came up with a horrendous plan to ship asylum seekers to Rwanda, a ridiculously expensive and punitive proposal which has been on hold after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the it carried “a real risk of irreversible harm.” The danger is that this sort of inhumanity will be normalized and more lives will be lost. 

I also noticed that Canada has released new ambitious targets for immigrants in the next couple of years. By 2024 the number will be 450,000. As a point of comparision, the number in 2016 was 250,000. While this is encouraging the percentage allowed for humanitarian and refugee reasons is still quite small. There was also news about a poll result which found that seven out of ten Canadians expressed support for current immigration levels, the largest percentage recorded.

Recently I was recruited to give one of the Syrian family members a drive to an appointment in Kingston. He is one of the older members and didn't speak English when he arrived here. . We were able to converse on the way, and he told me with some pride that he is now a Canadian citizen, as are all other members of the family. He told me "this is home"which was touching. I thank God for all those who demonstrated practical hospitality when they arrived and through these past six years. These people are so much more than statistics and we must remember this when we see the grim numbers of those who have perished while seeking a new life.