Archived Information

Vatican Asks Syria to Open Borders to Refugees, Foreign Workers

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As North American and European navies finished evacuating their nationals from Lebanon, a Vatican official pleaded with Syria to open its borders to refugees and to the international community to help foreign workers trapped in Lebanon.

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, issued a statement July 26 calling for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon and Israel, for the safe passage of humanitarian aid into Lebanon and for assistance to those whose governments cannot evacuate them.

"I especially would draw attention to the fate of the thousands of migrant workers who got trapped in the conflict," particularly Asian and African workers, "who are the most abandoned," the archbishop said.

"May the international institutions come to their assistance and evacuate them to safer places and/or assist them to return home," he said.

"In addition," he said, some 22,000 Sudanese and Iraqi refugees had been granted asylum in Lebanon and are facing special difficulties.

Archbishop Marchetto asked Lebanon and Syria to expedite border-crossing procedures for the refugees and asked Syria "to grant them protection during this time of violence."

UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand, reported that some 90,000 Sri Lankans and about 15,000 Filipinos work in Lebanon.

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