Carelinks | Italy … continued ~
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repeatedly told by the bars that our group of
12 was too big, or some such excuse. So the
baptisms, performed on a beach where the
deck chairs were almost to the water’s edge,
was a wonderful witness to many of the unity
of persons and ethnicities in Christ.
The racism doesn’t end there. When the
migrants arrive, they are registered and taken
by the Government to various hostels or
camps. They are given no public support for
several months. Then, they are registered and
given support for a few months, and after six
months they can work, which Italians complain
is taking away their jobs. The Government
seems to hope that by not supporting them,
apart from accommodation, the migrants will
move further north to other parts of Europe.
Our brethren are reaching out to such newly
arrived migrants in four different camps. They
arrive on the beaches with totally nothing,
just their trousers and T-shirt. The mood
against helping the migrants varies from area
to area, but where they are, the support level
has decreased markedly in recent times. Food
is delivered to them by various charities, but
very little, and the Muslim charities give pref-
erence to feeding the Muslim migrants, of
whom there are many. We spent significant
funds on buying food for them- they have
cooking facilities. Rice, yams, cooking oil,
vegetables and also clothes. We are open to
donations to replace our funds spent on these
things and to continue assisting. We also
arranged for them to phone home to their
families, which meant so much to them.
The journeys of those who came from
northern Nigeria were amazing. They crossed
the Sahara, going several days packed in
trucks, drinking dirty water from oases, eating
dead camels or nothing at all. Until they
reached Libya, where some were put in the
migrant prisons there, experiencing whipping
and starvation, seeing Christian migrants
killed quite arbitraily by the Muslim guards.
Many also died on the Sahara journey. If a tyre
got damaged, the armed drivers would just
push off some of the migrants to lighten the
vehicle and leave them in the desert to die.
Then there was the dangerous crossing of the
Meditteranean. All we spoke to said their
boats leaked and all of them were brought to
Italy by rescue ships as their boats had sprung
leaks or been swamped by waves. One of
those we baptized had changed his name to