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Mauritania faces the Canary Islands, gateway to Europe and, at the same time, it is on the edge of the Sahara giving access to North Africa. For many years now, it has served as a transit zone for migrants coming from different countries of Africa who want to go to Europe. Their arrival is often linked to political events or war situations in their countries of origin. So we have seen at different times, waves of people from the DRC, Nigeria, Cameroon, and (at the time of Gbagbo crisis) from Côte d’Ivoire. The list is not exhaustive! Continue reading “Migration: a view from Mauritania (PE nr. 1082)”

Shortly after my arrival at Ghardaïa in Algeria, and given my background of working in both Anglophone and Francophone West Africa, I soon found my niche in pastoral work among the migrants in the area. In the beginning, I was in contact with Liberians, Nigerians, and Cameroonians. They came looking for help to pay medical prescriptions and blankets for winter (it is cold in the Sahara!). My experiences in Burkina Faso and Niger, where I had never given out charity for fear of undermining the spirit of generosity of the emerging Christian communities, pushed me to put an end to this sort of payment after being in Ghardaïa for about six months. Continue reading “Pastoral Work among migrants in Northern Africa : a missionary building site (PE nr. 1082)”

For eight months now, I have worked with the religious of different Congregations at a Reception Centre for migrants, newly arrived from Libya after crossing the desert and the Mediterranean Sea. With the little experience that I have, I will never again allow myself to utter generalisations about the causes of migration that so many ‘experts’ make from the comfort of their air-conditioned offices! One simply cannot look in the eyes of those traumatised by their experiences and continue to speculate with the ‘experts.’ Most of the migrants have been sold wholesale (in bulk) and then resold retail at the slave market in Libya. They have been tortured in prison or private houses, forced to work without wages or simply killed for the simple reason they are black. Continue reading “My experience of working with Migrants (PE nr. 1082)”

Amnesty International has blamed «failing EU policies» for the soaring death toll among refugees and migrants in the central Mediterranean. It said the EU was turning a blind eye to abuses in Libyan detention centres, and was mostly leaving it up to sea rescue charities to save migrants. It also stated that more than 2,000 people have died in 2017 trying to get to Europe. Continue reading “The history of the world is one of migration (PE nr. 1082)”