He became more interested in Christianity after his arrival. In June 2018 while in the country unlawfully, a friend said he should apply for refugee status and not return to China because he was a Christian. Read more

The death of Marco Antonio Muñoz has not been publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security, and it did not appear in any local news accounts.

But, according to a copy of a sheriff's department report obtained by The Washington Post, Muñoz was found on the floor of his cell on 13 May.

Muñoz's death occurred not long after the Trump administration began implementing its ­"zero-tolerance" crackdown on illegal migration.

The chairman of the US bishops' Committee on Migration on June 1 criticised the Trump administration for "forcibly separating children from their mothers and fathers" at the US-Mexico border.

Such a policy "is ineffective to the goals of deterrence and safety, and contrary to our Catholic values," said Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas.

"Family unity is a cornerstone of our American immigration system and a foundational element of Catholic teaching".

Bishop Daniel Flores issued a statement three days ago in which he said while a nation has a right to secure its sovereign border, it does not mean that it may use any means available to deter immigrants who seek to ask for asylum.

Flores is the Bishop of Brownsville, which is on the border between Texas and Mexico.

"This nation, for the sake of its soul, must learn to weep with these children, and all the children who are being instrumentalised and commodified in our midst", Flores said.

He called the Catholics of Brownsville and all people of good will to write to the President, the Attorney General and members of Congress to insist that this manner of enforcement comes to an end.

Source

• washingtonpost.com
• catholicphilly.com
• Supplied: Father Tony O'Connor
• Image: edition.cnn.com

Fatemah, a 55-year old refugee woman, has been told there's an imminent risk of her sudden death because of her heart condition.

The medical treatment that Fatemah needs is not available on Nauru.

Australia approved her transfer but will not let her 16-year-old son accompany her.

Fatemah's son has experienced suicidal ideation and has never been apart from her.

Two years ago she was transferred to Darwin for treatment but was sent back to Nauru without any explanation or treatment.

A year and a half ago, Fatemah was transferred to Port Moresby but still did not access the treatment she needs.

Fatemah was asked if she had a message for Ardern.

"Me and the other refugees who are here stretch their hands towards you," she said.

"We want New Zealand to help us because we really need your help. Please do something before it's too late for us."

General practitioner Nick Martin was contracted by the Australian government through the company International Health and Medical Services to look after Fatemah and about 1000 other refugees on Nauru.

Fatemah refused to follow his advice to leave Nauru for treatment, Martin said.

"She was adamant, and I can't really blame her, that she would not leave her son behind."

He's pretty much all she's got in this world right now, and she was so distressed at the idea of leaving him that she said 'no I can't'," he said.

"It's a real kind of Sophie's Choice for that mum. I think it's a pretty inhumane thing to do to any mum to force her to leave her child.

"She couldn't guarantee his safety when he'd be left on his own. Certainly Nauru is not the kind of place you'd want to leave an unaccompanied teenager who is pretty vulnerable."

Source

• RNZ
• asrc.org.au
• Image: FaceBook

The first two generally come in the form of packages from the United Nation's World Food Program or other nonprofit organizations.

The latter, however, traditionally came in the form of kerosene lamps, which are less than ideal. In fact, they're often dangerous.

According to the Word Health Organization, roughly 1.5 million people a year die from toxic kerosene fumes.

In India, where the impoverished population heavily depends on kerosene, the lamps cause over 30,000 yearly house fires.

In South Africa, 200,000 people are injured or lose property due to kerosene-related fires.

Not to mention, kerosene users spend 30% of their income buying it.

"They can save that money for food, education, building homes," explains Alice Min Soo Chun, founder and CEO of Solight Design, who created a unique alternative: a slim solar lantern.

The SolarPuff is a two-ounce, flat-pack solar lamp which quickly expands into a 4.5-inch cube.

The lantern can last eight hours and easily recharges with clear sunlight.

It provides enough light for refugees or people in impoverished areas to perform tasks at night, without instigating any dangerous fires or needing batteries. There are even different settings (high or low), and a blinking option to scare off wild animals or signal distress.

To some degree, we likely take light for granted, but 1.06 billion people have no access to electricity or clean sustainable lighting, according to the World Bank.

Child trauma, kidnappings and sex trafficking

Chun explains how many Syrian refugees—often starving and sick—arrive by boat in the middle of night, at times when they cannot see where to land or how to safely disembark.

They are handed lights by NGO volunteers to navigate the waters so they don't crash into rocks.

From there, they might need to walk up to 30 miles in the dark to arrive at a camp, where there are no lights. (Refugees without access to kerosene lamps often find themselves burning plastic trash, "which is even more toxic," notes Chun).

SolarPuff brightens the trek—and their new life.

"A lot of times the kids are suffering from trauma and they're frightened, but when they're handed the light, they perk up."

The popping element of the design, she explains, "gives them a sense of wonder."

The SolarPuff has proven to be extremely useful in reducing camp crime, such as child kidnappings or sex trafficking. Continue reading

On his Facebook page Mr Obama said the boy, only know as Alex from New York, was "moved by the heartbreaking images of Omran Daqneesh."

Omran is the five-year-old in Aleppo who was photographed sitting in an ambulance covered in dust and blood and sitting in shock following an air strike. Read more

Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen, 54, begins his new role after serving as a Conventual Franciscan since 1989 and as auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne since 2011.

Parramatta, in western Sydney, is one of the largest Catholic dioceses in Australia and is a favourite destination for new migrants.

"Coming to Australia by boat as a refugee from Vietnam, I found myself a newcomer in Melbourne. I now consider myself a newcomer to the diocese of Parramatta," Bishop Long said.

"My appointment is not just about me or an individual honour, but it's an affirmation and recognition on the part of the universal Church of the gifts and contributions that migrants and refugees can make to the Church and also to society," Bishop Long said.

"It has a strong and relevant message to the nation at this point in time as we tend to be a bit less welcoming to people who arrive by boat."

Bishop Long initially felt a calling to the priesthood as a teenager and he studied in a seminary near Saigon.

In 1975, Vietnam's new rulers started closing religious training colleges and Bishop Long followed two older brothers and fled overseas.

He escaped on a 17-metre boat jam-packed with 147 refugees.

"Our boat journey was risky. There were more people on board than the boat could carry safely. By the third day, we had run out of food, water and fuel. From then on, we were at the mercy of the elements. On the seventh day, we drifted near an oil rig, half alive and half dead," he said in an interview with the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference in 2015.

The bishop and the family members he travelled with were rescued and settled in a refugee camp in Malaysia, where he stayed for 16 months.

During his time in the camp, he taught himself English.

He was accepted to go to Australia in 1981.

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: Catholic Herald

But to describe this as a camp is wrong. This is a swamp. There are no basic facilities. None. It's a field of mud and tattered tents. I am surrounded by people waiting to see a doctor holding little tickets, eyeing each other with suspicion. This, at least, is better than where I have just been, where I found Afghans sleeping in a ditch.

The people I am with are worried about the children, aged as young as 10 and 11, they have seen there; "unaccompanied minors" with scabies.

Ali babbles to me non-stop about how he is all right, really. But no one here is. In June, there were maybe 150 people camped out. Now there are more than 10 times as many, predominantly Kurds.

Families are arriving all the time. The average refugee is a young man, it's true, but there are more and more women and children. A boy of seven pulls out his prize possession to show us - a tiny fire truck.

Women sit in tents frying potatoes. They smile and chat, but everyone is cold. Everything is wet. Everyone has a story of how they got here. Some show me on their phones images of them getting out of flimsy dinghies - their witnesses to trauma.

As they have journeyed from Syria or Eritrea, fleeing Islamic State, torture, unimaginable darkness, the phones are their lifelines. They connect them back to where they have come from and to a world they are now locked out of. Continue reading

Sources

• The Guardian, from an article by Suzanne Moore, an award-winning columnist and also writes for the Mail on Sunday.
• Image: The Telegraph

Her father had already been killed by the murderous regime there, and her young mother managed to escape with two young children in tow through the Cambodian jungle.

They cheated death with every step as they avoided landmines and eventually made it to a Thai refugee camp.

In time, they were sponsored to New Zealand.

The thing is, I didn't know that six-year-old refugee would become my wife.

I didn't know my mother-in-law and other folks who would become beloved extended family were suffering as refugees.

If I had known, would I have done more?

Would I have spoken out against anti-refugee rhetoric more strongly?

Would I have made sure refugees were welcomed in New Zealand and their needs were well met?

Of course I would have. (And I am grateful that my parents were actively involved in sponsoring and caring for refugees throughout my childhood.)

There is something profoundly important about the fact that God's own son walked this earth as an undocumented child refugee.

This was no accident.

It was part of the plan all along.

He could have been born and lived as a prince, a wealthy landowner, or the Chief Priest.

Instead, He chose to become a refugee. Take a look at these words from Matthew 2:13-15:

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.

God's heart is very much for the refugee.

His own Son was a refugee. Jesus even reiterated that point, saying, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me in."

Whatever you do for refugees, you do for Him. He calls them his "little brothers" as a reminder that those who suffer are to be considered family (Matthew 25:40).

How, then, should you and I respond, practically speaking, to what seems like an overwhelming refugee crisis?

There are four ways, I think, that would be biblical, Christ-like responses to the humanitarian crisis that is currently unfolding. Continue reading

• Craig Greenfield is the director of Alongsiders International. He blogs at www.craiggreenfield.com.

When we began getting pictures of Syrians walking into Europe last week and our media became awash with the story, my heart was stuck on one question: why is this happening now?

The Syrian civil war has been raging for four years. The atrocities of Isis are reason enough for anyone to flee but they have been happening for a while and I'd not read of an upsurge of late.

Why are so many people on the move now?

What on earth has just happened that could cause the parents of that drowned boy to put him at such risk?

Oddly, the coverage wasn't asking these things. When such an obvious element of a story is missing I worry about why that might be.

Night after night, images on the screen left the impression these people were coming from Syria and words accompanying the images made little effort to dispel the impression.

It took me a while to realise these people had left Syria years ago. They were coming from refugee camps in Turkey.

United Nations refugee camps are wretched places, as we know from Rachel Smalley's reporting for the Herald and World Vision this year.

She described some appalling dangers, particularly for barely pubescent girls who have to get married for safety.

But, dangerous as the camps may be, the millions living in them would not be there if they presented imminent life-threatening peril to most of those seeking asylum.

Most of the people now pouring into Europe are clearly not in urgent need of refuge, the majority appear to be young men on the make, and good luck to them.

I'm all for economic migrants. I think Australia should quietly welcome the boats. People with the energy and pluck, not to mention the money to pay smugglers, will probably be productive citizens. Continue reading

• John Roughan is an editorial writer and columnist for The New Zealand Herald.

"They are not refugees. This is an invasion," Kiss-Rigo told the Washington Post.

The bishop says he is in total agreement with the Prime Minister.

The pope "does not know the situation", says the bishop of a predominantly Catholic country.

"They come here with cries of 'Allahu Akbar'. They want to take over" Kiss-Rigo said.

Europe is being inundated by people who are posing as refugees but actually present a grave threat to the continent's christian, universal values, he said.

Kiss-Rigo is bishop of Szeged-Csanád, Hungary, an area that seeing some of the heaviest migrant flows in Europe.

The Washington Post reports that the bishop's description of the situation also reflects the broader spiritual struggle in Europe and the question of how to respond to the burgeoning flow of predominantly Muslim people into a largely Christian continent.

Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban is taking worldwide heat for halting the migrant's journeys, saying the in-flow of migrants is a direct challenge to Europe's Christian character.

The message of both Hungarian men is in stark contrast to Pope Francis' Sunday message, appealing to Europe Catholics moral duty to reach out and help the refugees by opening their churches, monasteries and homes as sanctuaries.

Meanwhile, Austrian Cardinal, Christopher Schönborn is calling on all the bishops in the European Union to "find a common line" on the mounting crisis in Europe.

"We expect the EU to find a common stance on the migrant issue so we may also expect a common line from EU bishops," Schönborn said September 6.

Sources

• Washington Post
• NCR
• CathNews
• Image: The Daily Beast

While he agrees impartiality is regarded as one of the fundamental principles of humanitarian action, he believes that in the current situation in the Middle East and North Africa, need and religious belief are inextricably linked. Continue reading

See also Banabas Foundation

Her Kurdish family had fled Iraq for Pakistan in the hope of receiving aid from the United Nations.

Ms Ricardo was born three years after her family left Iraq and spent most of her life, until the age of 6, living in Pakistani refugee camps.

The law student said that turbulent time was characterised by crowded living conditions, mass protests and hunger strikes.

It is these memories that drive her towards her goal of becoming an international human rights lawyer.

"I'm using my own misfortune to pay back the opportunities I was given, and if I can help others along the way that is what I want to do. Read More

Mr Key had repeated the claim several times that thousands and thousands of refugees make it into the country, despite the annual refugee quota being just 750.

He said many more came in under the family reunification programme.

He corrected his comments that up to 4000 refugees were accepted each year.

"I was recalling a figure in that region which actually referred to the total number of the full refugee programme, which is a three-year programme.

"The number of refugees, asylum seekers and family members per year is obviously smaller than that.

Key had claimed thousands are coming into the country each year under the family reunification programme.

But refugee advocate Murdoch Stephens said John Key was either mistaken or being deliberately misleading.

When challenged on the issue, Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse disputed that Mr Key had made such comments.

Mr Woodhouse dismissed the comments again in Parliament late last week when asked about the matter by Green MP Denise Roche. Read More

Also:

• Key sees tripled quota of refugees as the right level
• Time for New Zealand to accept more refugees

Dear brothers and sisters,

Jesus is 'the evangeliser par excellence and the Gospel in person'.

His solicitude, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalised, invites all of us to care for the frailest and to recognise his suffering countenance, especially in the victims of new forms of poverty and slavery.

The Lord says: 'I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me'.

The mission of the Church, herself a pilgrim in the world and the Mother of all, is thus to love Jesus Christ, to adore and love him, particularly in the poorest and most abandoned; among these are certainly migrants and refugees, who are trying to escape difficult living conditions and dangers of every kind.

For this reason, the theme for this year's World Day of Migrants and Refugees is: Church without frontiers, Mother to all.

The Church opens her arms to welcome all people, without distinction or limits, in order to proclaim that 'God is love'.

After his death and resurrection, Jesus entrusted to the disciples the mission of being his witnesses and proclaiming the Gospel of joy and mercy.

On the day of Pentecost, the disciples left the Upper Room with courage and enthusiasm; the strength of the Holy Spirit overcame their doubts and uncertainties and enabled all to understand the disciples' preaching in their own language.

From the beginning, the Church has been a mother with a heart open to the whole world, and has been without borders.

This mission has continued for two thousand years.

But even in the first centuries, the missionary proclamation spoke of the universal motherhood of the Church, which was then developed in the writings of the Fathers and taken up by the Second Vatican Council.

The Council Fathers spoke of Ecclesia Mater to explain the Church's nature.

She begets sons and daughters and 'takes them in and embraces them with her love and in her heart'. Continue reading

Sources

• News.VA
• Image: Amnesty International
• See also Spiegel Online: 'Survivors of shipwreck "left to die".'

In Ranong, I taught English in a learning centre and I was amazed by the children's interest in learning and by their respect for their teachers.

I also realized that learning English and Thai can make the difference for them in having and not having "a future".

I was also able to work with the HIV Project.

Our help is integral but, what the patients value most is to know that somebody cares for them.

I could see how a terminal patient felt relieved and calm after our visit.

We did very little during our short visit, but for that person we brought relief.

He died less than 48 hours later.

The last part of my experience was the visit to three refugee camps in the Northwest of Thailand. The life in the refugee camp is very tough.

• the refugees cannot get out of the camp,
• nor go freely into Thailand
• they cannot farm nor work
• they have no money and almost no rights
• they depend on UNHCR and other NGO's
• their life is monotonous and without attraction.

It seems they do not exist, and are trapped in the middle of the jungle.

Two camps have dormitories for children whose parents have gone back to Myanmar but the children remain to study.

During our farewell, one boy with whom I had had a nice chat asked me:

'Will you remember me?'

'Yes, I will," I replied.

"Good, because I'll remember you', he said.

'Will you pray for me? ', he asked again.

'Sure,' I replied.

'Good, I'll pray for you too,' he added.

Lastly, he asked me, 'Will you miss me?'

Then, with my heart touched, I replied, 'yes, I'll miss you'.

How big has to be your longing for appreciation, for attention, for acknowledgement in order to 'beg' a stranger to miss you?

In this moment I realized what it is like to be a refugee: they feel abandoned and ignored.

These people need many things, especially good education and basic resources, but I have realized that the only thing I could do for them now is to keep their memory alive and their voice loud and not to allow our memories and consciences rest until they will be able to return to their real home.

For these are the lowly ones; those of whom Mary foretells in the Magnificat that were lifted up by the Lord (Lk 1,52). They should be the most important because they are the least ones.

- Daniel Fernandez
A Marist seminarian studying Theology in Rome was with the Marist Mission Ranong on mission placement during the Italian summer break.

In the past 18 months more than 500 people have died, or gone missing at sea, trying to escape Africa. The world barely noticed.

Standing on Lampedusa on Monday, Francis prayed for the victims and cast a wreath in the water to commemorate the dead. More importantly, he drew attention to the desperate plight of migrants, in his country and around the world.

"We have fallen into a globalization of indifference," Francis said, as he stood near an altar made from the salvage of shipwrecks.

The pope wore purple - a color that symbolizes penance in Catholicism - and prayed that world leaders who ignored the plight of migrants might be forgiven.

"The fact he wore purple and asking for forgiveness was very powerful," Christopher M. Bellitto a church historian and Associate Professor at Kean University said.

"This is a guy that socks you in the gut and touches your heart."

It was his first trip outside of Rome since Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected in March as the head of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide. And it showed how quickly he is learning to shine the megawatt spotlight of his popular papacy on issues dear to his heart.

There are obvious differences between a Catholic pontiff and a princess.

But watching Francis' first few months in office, it's hard not to notice that he seems to have taken a page from the late Princess Diana's playbook.

The Princess of Wales knew where she went, the media followed. Her activism brought global attention to homelessness, HIV/AIDs, and, most prominently, land mines.

Just as Diana ventured far from Buckingham Palace to wrap her arms around landmine victims in Africa and elsewhere, Pope Francis has taken the papacy out of the the Sistine Chapel and into the streets. Continue reading

Sources

• Eric Marrapodi in CNN Belief Blog
• Image: Spiegel Online

Eric Marrapodi is CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor.

Officially part of Sicilian territory, the isolated island of 5000 inhabitants is less than 115 kilometres from the coast of Tunisia, making it a beacon for asylum seekers fleeing the poverty and violence that has accompanied the Arab Spring.

Of the 7913 refugees who arrived on the Italian coast in the first six months of this year, 3648 landed on Lampedusa.

Numerous refugees have died at sea, Archbishop Francesco Montenegro of Agrigento, Sicily, told Vatican Radio, but "the number of deaths does not seem to be of interest because they have black skin".

Archbishop Montenegro paid tribute to the generosity of the island's residents, who have been "giving everything" to help the migrants, who often come with nothing on perilous, flimsy boats.

"[My people] have emptied cupboards, have provided showers, luncheons, goods, clothes," he said.

The prelate revealed that he invited Pope Francis to visit Lampedusa during his May 20 ad limina visit. "I saw the Pope paid close attention to the news I gave him, and I said it would be good if he wanted to come."

During his visit to the island, the Pope "will commit a wreath to the sea in memory of those who lost their lives in the shipwreck", the Vatican announced, before he meets with migrants, celebrates an outdoor Mass, and visits the island's parish.

"Immigration is not an ‘emergency'; we must have the courage to stop using this word: It is the way things are," Archbishop Montenegro said. "Today, 10 will arrive, 100 will arrive, 1000 will arrive; but the problem is not because they arrive in the thousands. The problem is also there if only 10 arrive, because they are 10 men who want to live."

Sources:

Vatican Radio

Vatican Insider

Image: English-Online

A recommendation for the Church to advocate for climate change refugees was accepted with unanimous support at the Church's biennial General Assembly in Rotorua on the weekend.

The Church's new Moderator, the Right Rev Ray Coster, says the New Zealand Government needs to recognise the crisis being faced by our small vulnerable nation neighbours and act before it is too late.

Nauru's new President, Frederick Pitcher, told Nauru media there would be no change in the government's course, despite the departure of his predecessor.

Senior Nauru government officials have said the change in the presidency would not make "a single iota of difference" to the Nauru solution.

"The proposal does not change with the reshuffle," said one minister. "Anyone saying otherwise is playing politics."

Australia's opposition's immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, was expected to try to speak to Mr Pitcher soon to discuss the Coalition's proposal. He said the Coalition looked forward to working with the new President.

Mr Stephen, who was elected on a mandate to end corruption, resigned following a public controversy generated by the leak of an email he had sent to a large buyer of the Pacific nation's phosphate, in which he allegedly appeared to solicit a bribe.

Along with Foreign Minister Kieren Keke, who changed ministerial portfolios as part of a cabinet reshuffle, Mr Stephen had been one of the key backers of the processing centre.

Source

• The Australian
• Image: The Age.com.au

The pope's comments were made during his Angelus message.

Speaking on Vatican radio, Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio, the president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants reinforced the Pope's comments and lamented the "hardening attitude of countries so that it seems that refugees are the problem, and not the reasons why they have to flee."

The archbishop acknowledged that today's refugees face new challenges because of the global political situation.

"Closing the door" is not the answer, the archbishop said.

Veglio said that more than one million people have fled Libya, with about 15,000 arriving in Italy, 290,000 in Tunisia, and 161,000 in Egypt.

The Archbishop also spoke of his concern about the situation in Sudan and in particular of children who know no other reality than that of being raised in a refugee camp.

The Archbishop noted the Church has consistently worked to help refugees and the internally displaced through the help of local bishops' conferences, clergy and religious communities.

"In addition, Caritas, both at diocesan level or national level, is assisting in many different ways, from emergency aid to being directly involved in managing refugee camps," he said, adding that the charity also works in "counseling of traumatized refugees, and the reintegration of child soldiers" into society.

"Countries should guarantee the rights of the refugees and act according to the spirit of the 1951 Convention, to assist those in need, to welcome them, and treat them on the same level as citizens."

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• Vatican Radio
• National Catholic Register
• Image: Caritas