Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, who stood in the boat outside Cologne Cathedral on Thursday, called for compassion for migrants and refugees.

Hundreds of people witnessed the liturgy.

The boat had been formerly used to transport refugees across the Mediterranean.

Authorities in Malta reportedly recovered the seven-metre-long boat used by the cardinal.

It was then transported to Cologne by Maltese church officials.

Cardinal Woelki, who has advocated or migrants and refugees for years, said refugees were people with hopes and dreams just like anyone else.

"In this boat, people young and old, women and children, were smuggled over the Mediterranean," Cardinal Woelki said.

"To see those in need and help them is the task the Lord has given to us as Christians."

On the same day Cardinal Woelki spoke, at least 20 people drowned when their boat sank north of Libya.

The day before, a trawler with hundreds of people on board capsized as an Italian navy boat arrived, killing at least five people.

Cardinal Woekl lamented such deaths, saying it is now God alone who "knows their hopes, their pain, their dreams, their sadness, their families and their life stories".

"Whoever lets people drown, lets God drown - every day, thousands of times," he said.

"Whoever tortures people to death in camps, tortures God to death - thousands and thousands of times."

Cologne has been the site of tensions surrounding migration after women were assaulted en masse, allegedly by refugees, on December 31 last year.

Some 700 refugees are believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean in recent days.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• The Independent
• Image: Sydney Morning Herald

But the Rev. Mussie Zerai, a 40-year-old Roman Catholic priest from tiny Eritrea, north of Ethiopia, has moved to help migrants trapped in the North African deserts and rickety wooden boats drifting across the sea.

"It is my duty and moral obligation as a priest to help these people. For me it's simple: Jesus said we must love one another as we love ourselves," Zerai said in a telephone interview.

The little-known priest, now based in Rome and Switzerland, was among this year's nominees for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Pope Francis.

(The prize, announced Friday, was awarded to the National Dialogue Quartet, which helped build a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia.)

Zerai runs a center that receives calls from distressed migrants who have fled their countries in hopes of finding a better life in Europe.

He relays refugees' GPS coordinates to coast guard and naval authorities so they can launch rescue operations.

Most of the migrants are from Syria, the horn of Africa and sub-Saharan Africa and are fleeing political and social situations in their countries of origin. Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis make up most of their numbers.

They usually attempt to cross to Italy through Libya, Egypt and Morocco.

"Many of them are fleeing war, religious, political and ethnic persecution. Then, there are dictatorships and poverty which are causing this exodus," said Zerai.

In North Africa, some of the migrants are captured by traffickers who seek ransoms from their families. Those who cannot pay ransom are sold to those who harvest organs for illegal transplants.

In the Mediterranean, 3,000 migrants on the voyages have died this year so far, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Observers say the number of deaths is expected to increase as the cold season approaches. Continue reading

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter, from an article by Fredrick Nzwili, a journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Image: BBC

What results can an agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme bring for peace in the Middle East? Why does the Holy See view it as a positive thing?

The Holy See views the Iranian nuclear agreement in a positive light because it believes that controversies and difficulties must always be resolved through dialogue and negotiation.

The deal reached is the result of years of negotiations over a question that had caused a great deal of concern. The fact that the solution found satisfies all sides is a very positive thing. Clearly, this agreement will require the continued efforts and commitment of everyone if it is to bear fruit.

It is significant that there is a mutual trust between the Parties; it is this trust that has made an understanding possible and it must be fostered.

I must reiterate that dialogue and negotiation, not fighting, are the means to resolving existing conflicts in the Middle East and these must be dealt with on both a global and regional level.

This path does require courageous decisions for the good of all, but it is that which will lead to a much-hoped-for peace in the Region.

Can you comment on the Greek crisis and the problems it faces with the European Union? Do you not think that Europe is increasingly becoming a technical and financial community that struggles to identify itself within a common project?

Certainly the Greek crisis has highlighted some difficulties and certain limits experienced by the European Union.

Unfortunately, Europe, as it was originally conceived by its "founding fathers" at the end of World War Two, cannot be reduced to an exclusively economic and financial institution or a place where, to put it better, the economic aspect prevails over all other matters.

The sharing of resources (initially through the ECSC, the European Coal and Steel Community), in a spirit of solidarity, had at first formed the essential premise for keeping further conflicts at bay.

Although the economy is important, it needs to co-exist alongside other cultural, political and ethical values that are just as key for the growth of European society. Continue reading

Sources

• Vassallomalta
• Image: Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Back then, the German chancellor said she was "deeply upset" — today she is "appalled." Back then, the president of the European Commission said he would never forget the dead, and that something had to change — today he claims: "The status quo is not an option."

Back then, Europe's interior ministers spoke of a horrific event — today it's an "utter horror.'" The gap between then and now is 19 months. And several thousands of dead in the Mediterranean.

Then was the night of Oct. 3, 2013. A fire broke out on an old cutter that had set out from the Libyan city of Misrata. Near the small Italian island of Lampedusa, more than 500 people went overboard, most of them from Somalia or Eritrea.

Not even one-third survived. The coffins in Lampedusa's airport hangar became a symbol for Europe's "shame," as Pope Francis put it.

At a meeting in Luxembourg held after the disaster, EU interior ministers spoke of a "wake-up call" and immediately established a working group. European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström argued that Lampedusa was an "image of the Union that we do not want."

In Berlin, the German government declared that "given a human catastrophe of this size," it was self-evident that current refugee policies should reexamined.

Shortly thereafter, German Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled to a summit of EU heads of government in Brussels, where "decisive measures" were promised to avoid a repeat of the catastrophe.

And then? Then the catastrophe repeated itself. A dozen times. Between then and now.

In the space of a few days in April, 400 people traveling from Africa to Europe drowned in the Mediterranean, then a boat with over 800 refugees capsized — and only 28 survived. Continue reading

Source and Image:

• Spiegel Online

In Albania, despite Italy's wartime invasion of that country, the fondest memory retained was that of Italian ice cream, which prevailed even through the most austere period of Enver Hoxha's Communist rule.

And then there is the darker side of the Italian stereotype: the Mafia boss; the Mussolini followers of fascism.

But over the past few months, surely, esteem for Italy's heroic and altruistic rescue of hundreds of thousands of refugees sailing, as best they can, across the Mediterranean, has surely grown all over Europe.

Over and over again, despite the pressures and political problems involved, Italy has effected humanitarian rescues of men, women and children who have fled North Africa for Italy's shores.

In a period of 12 months, Italians have rescued 100,000 people at sea in the Med. Granted, many of the migrants want to move to Germany, France, Sweden and Britain, but still, the Italians have behaved with great decency.

The latest tragedies, in which so many pitiful victims have lost their lives - with appalling suffering - when their unseaworthy vessels have capsized, only highlight further how much Italy has been involved in the rescue efforts.

The Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, is surely right when he says the European Union simply has to help out. But easier said than done.

What exactly can the EU do to stop the trafficking, and help the desperate people who will take any risks to escape from the dreadful conditions of their homelands in North Africa, Egypt and elsewhere?

One lesson is clear: toppling dictators and advocating an "Arab spring" of democracy will not bring about peaceful, stable and tolerant societies overnight - or perhaps for centuries.

• Mary Kenny in Catholic Herald

Mary Kenny is a Catholic Herald columnist.

Since December 2013, the authority has spent hundreds of millions of euros deploying drones and satellites to surveil the borders.

The EU registers everything that happens near its borders. In contrast to the claims that are often made, they do not look away when refugees die. They are watching very closely.

And what is happening here is not negligent behaviour. They are deliberately killing refugees.People have been perishing as they sought to flee to Europe for years now. They drown in the Mediterranean, bleed to death on the border fences of the Spanish North African conclaves of Ceuta and Melilla or freeze to death in the mountains between Hungary and Ukraine.

But the European public still doesn't appear to be entirely aware of the dimensions of this humanitarian catastrophe. We have become accomplices to one of the biggest crimes to take place in European postwar history.

Barbarism in the Name of Europe

It's possible that 20 years from now, courts or historians will be addressing this dark chapter. When that happens, it won't just be politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris who come under pressure.

We the people will also have to answer uncomfortable questions about what we did to try to stop this barbarism that was committed in all our names.

The mass deaths of refugees at Europe's external borders are no accidents — they are the direct result of European Union policies. The German constitution and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights promise protection for people seeking flight from war or political persecution. But the EU member states have long been torpedoing this right.

Those wishing to seek asylum in Europe must first reach European territory. But Europe's policy of shielding itself off from refugees is making that next to impossible. The EU has erected meters-high fences at its periphery, soldiers have been ordered to the borders and war ships are dispatched in order to keep refugees from reaching Europe. Continue reading

• Maximilian Popp writes mainly on migration, racism and Turkey
• See also While Europe argues, thousands perish in the Mediterranean in MercatorNet

He sits in a migrant detention centre in Zawya, Libya, surrounded by hundreds of fellow asylum seekers who nearly died this week at sea.

They survived only after being intercepted, detained and brought back to shore by Libyan coastguards, ending a week in which they went round in circles, starving and utterly lost.

But despite their horror stories, Abdallah, 21, says the journey that his fellow inmates barely withstood - and that killed more than 450 others this week - is his only option.

"I cannot go back to my country," says Abdallah, who is from Darfur, in Sudan. He left for what is now South Sudan in 2006, after he says his village was destroyed in the Darfur war, his father died, and his sisters raped.

But in South Sudan, another war later broke out. So he made his way through the Sahara, a journey that he says killed his brother and cousin, to Libya.

And there last year, he was witness to his third civil war in a decade - a war that still drags on, its frontline just a few miles from the camp at Zawya.

"There is a war in my country, there's no security, no equality, no freedom," Abdallah says. "But if I stay here, it's just like my country. There is no security, there is violence. When you work, they take your money."

He worked in a soap shop, and saved up to pay local smugglers for the boat to Europe. But just as he hoped to complete the payment, he was robbed, and then arrested.

The recounting of his ordeal brings out first the tears, and then a conclusion: "I need to go to Europe." Continue reading

Source and Image:

• The Guardian

In the latest incident, hundreds are feared dead after a boat carrying an estimated 700 people capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Nearly 200,000 people have been rescued at sea by Italy since the start of 2014.

But the number of deaths of refugees in Mediterranean crossings has risen 50 times since Mare Nostrum, a broad search and rescue operation in international waters, was replaced by a more limited operation within 50 kilometres of the Italian coast.

Italy announced it was ending Mare Nostrum in November last year, after it proved to be unsustainable without further help from EU nations.

The EU's external borders agency, Frontex, implemented Operation Triton, with far fewer vessels, one-third of the budget and a smaller geographic scope.

The British government dropped its support for EU search-and-rescue operations because, it said, these would only "encourage" more migrants to attempt to cross.

Yet Save the Children pointed to the dramatic surge in numbers so far this month with 12,342 migrants arriving, up from 2,283 in the whole of March.

Speaking in Rome alongside Sergio Mattarella, Italy's President, the Pope said: "I express my gratitude for the commitment that Italy is making to welcome the many migrants who, risking their lives, ask to be taken in."

"It's evident that the proportions of the phenomenon require much broader involvement," the Pope said.

"We must never tire of appealing for a more extensive commitment on the European and international level."

At his Regina Caeli address on Sunday, Pope Francis mentioned the most recent loss of life, saying the victims were like us in their search for happiness.

"They are men and women like us, our brothers who seek a better life: hungry, persecuted, wounded, exploited, victims of war," the Pope said in off-the-cuff remarks.

"They were looking for happiness."

The emergency in the Mediterranean was to be discussed at an EU foreign ministers' meeting on April 20.

Sources

• The Independent
• Catholic News Agency
• Human Rights Watch
• Image: World Maritime News

One minute Fahad Abdul Kariem was wedged into the hold, legs apart so that another migrant could sit in front of him.

The next, the Mediterranean swell was rolling the vessel, the motion aggravated by the scores of African and Indian migrants clinging to the roof canopy.

And everyone was in the water.

"I was under the boat when my hand caught a lifebuoy that I clung to as the last resort," Kariem said of the shipwreck off Libya this summer.

"I saw bodies floating on the sea. Some were wearing lifejackets. One was a child. But I could not see where my friend Ayman was."

In those desperate moments in late August, Ayman became another statistic, one of the more than 2,500 people who have died or are missing feared dead after trying to get into Europe across the Mediterranean this year.

It's also a record year for arrivals - 160,000 in the first nine months of the year, already more than double the total for the previous record in 2011. More than 90,000 people have been fished out of the water by the Italian navy.

Why is 2014 proving such a terrible year?

The answer is a combination of factors: war, upheaval and economic rout on Europe's periphery; the cynicism of smugglers who can charge as much as $10,000 (£6,200) to move a person from A to B, even if B is the bottom of the ocean; the breakdown of law and order in one of the principal conduits for migrants - Libya; the Italian rescue mission which paradoxically may be encouraging more people to risk every­thing in overladen fishing vessels ill-equipped for the job. Continue reading

Source and image

• The Guardian