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On October 15, 2024, 51 Syrian refugees landed in Rome’s Fiumicino airport on a humanitarian flight from Lebanon. Welcomed with banners, flowers and balloons this group of migrants was brought to Rome thanks to the “humanitarian corridors” initiative, organized by the Catholic association, the Community of Sant’Egidio, along with the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, the Waldensian Church, the Italian Bishops’ Conference and the local government.
These actors all joined forces in 2016 to launch this project in order to give migrants a safe way to come to Europe and request asylum, as opposed to trying to embark on the dangerous journey by boat across the Mediterranean, which has resulted in over 28,000 deaths since 2013. Since then the Humanitarian Corridors initiative has expanded also to France and Belgium and as of October 2024, some 7,800 people have been safely brought to Europe from Lebanon, Greece, Gaza, and more.
Aleteia spoke to Cecilia Pani, in charge of the Humanitarian Corridors’ program for Iran and Ethiopia for the Catholic lay Community of Sant’Egidio, about this initiative and how it has been able to give migrants escaping difficult situations a new hope in the future.
How was the humanitarian corridors initiative born?
Cecilia Pani: The Community of Sant'Egidio, precisely because of its focus on migrants, had long struggled with the drama of so-called “journeys of hope” in the Mediterranean, where in order to enter a land where they could later receive political asylum, which was their right, migrants and refugees had to put their lives at risk.
This was a painful contradiction that had always hurt us, and when we began to count the data we realized there was an important and tragic number of victims. We started to organize these prayers, celebrated on the International Refugee Day on June 20 with foreign communities, both Christian and non-Christian, present in Italy. This ceremony started in Rome then spread throughout Italy.
Then on October 3, 2013 we organized a special ceremony of remembrance with the Federation of Evangelical Churches, collecting all the names of all the deceased through family members. From there we began to think about what could be done. From that growing tragedy, the heads of Sant'Egidio, with the leaders of the Evangelical Churches, thought of looking for an alternative. Meaning trying to find with the Italian government an alternative to open a legal pathway.
And how did that go?
Cecilia Pani: This work with the government took a year. The first proposal for a legal route was submitted to the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the end of 2014, and then it took a year of negotiations to get the first project protocol, called in fact “humanitarian corridors,” signed at the end of 2015.
From there, programs with Lebanon for Syrians were renewed several times, then in 2016 programs were established for Africa, such as for Ethiopia, Niger to bring Eritreans, Sudanese, South Sudanese, Somalis. Then from there, other corridors were opened for France and Belgium, where the Community of Sant'Egidio was present and had relations with the governments and was doing the same activities of offering schools to support integration.
How does it work ?
Cecilia Pani: I want to specify that the expression humanitarian corridor is also used to refer to something that is not the Sant'Egidio program, that is, generically, a safe evacuation of people in danger.
Instead, the model of Sant'Egidio’s program has a characteristic which is that there is a unit of intervention that choose the candidates that come. There are program managers who go to the partner countries to identify candidates according to established criteria such as vulnerability, but also adaptability to the destination country. This is very important because the program is self-managed and self-funded with no expense to the government, so the migrants who arrive need to be supported by the civil society, families, parishes, associations that then also accompany them. This is for a limited period evidently, typically one year, sometimes for cases of greater fragility maybe 2 years. So candidates need to be chosen based on their future possible ability to make themselves financially independent.
So first the program leaders go to the country and choose the candidates, then they arrange all the procedures for dealing with the countries of origin, such as contacting embassies and international organizations to get the various permits. Then they make travel arrangements, obtain visas and accompany the refugees on the trip and then also follow them in their integration in the new country for a year.
What is the reception like when they arrive in Italy?
Cecilia Pani: We are convinced that the first impact with the new country is a crucial moment, because it is the one that then also marks their whole new life. For the refugees their arrival in a new country is also a cause of anxiety because they leave everything behind, sometimes they arrive with a small luggage or a backpack and nothing more. They abandon relatives, an imagined future that has been destroyed by war, and thus they go to an absolutely unknown place. From the arrival one chooses whether the attitude toward the new country will be positive or not. If this impact is made with a smile, with friendship, with empathy, it then leaves a mark.
When the humanitarian corridors arrive at Fiumicino we prepare bouquets of flowers for each individual. We prepare a beautiful sign in all languages that says welcome to Italy. We prepare balloons for the children, and there is always a young mediator who will play with them and make them smile after a difficult journey, after a terrible past, that they leave behind. We offer them hot drinks, from coffee, tea, chocolate.
Some families even after six, seven years, because the first families arrived in 2016, still remember that day as a new rebirth and so then the love for the new country also comes from that.
Do you prepare other events for when the families arrive?
Cecilia Pani: Yes, if possible, because the registration procedures take several hours, we try to provide a nice lunch possibly with some element of ethnic cuisine. For example if there are Syrian refugees we prepare a Syrian rice with raisins, if there are Eritreans we prepare something with berberè [a spice mixture], in short something to make them feel at home. Sometimes when it is possible we actually organize a party in one of our premises, even with the relatives of the people who have arrived, who may already be in Italy.
Whenever possible we also organize a press conference. We believe that the narrative about immigration is becoming more and more threatening: we hear people talk about a “danger of invasion,” “they are thieves,” “there are criminals who arrive hidden together with the refugees,” etc. This narrative leaves a mark on the culture, on young people, on the anxiety of the population that is supposed to receive people. Instead, we want to tell say that immigration is positive. We want to show these children who arrive, who are also the future of our society.
During these conferences we also tell the stories about reunifications. For example there are often moving encounters of mothers who have left their young children behind and now see them as adults, who were only able to come to Europe through humanitarian corridors.
Another important element of the press conference is that there is feedback. Seeing the families who welcome these people, these cute children who arrive, and the hugs from the relatives, generate good feelings in civil society and proposals come from groups, associations or parishes to welcome more refugees. After each arrival press conference, our phones receive many calls.
What would you say is the best thing about your work?
Cecilia Pani: I would say to restore hope. There is so much despair in this world. We are now visiting Sudanese in Ethiopia, there are some who have just fled their country but there are others who have been in refugee camps for 20 years, meaning they were born there. So the absence of hope is very palpable and this work instead wants to give back hope.
The “journeys of hope” in the Mediterranean have this beautiful name but are tragic, because they often end up in despair and death. The humanitarian corridors instead are real journeys of hope.
