Marta Bernardini, Mediterranean Hope, Rom/Italien
The ecumenical experience of humanitarian corridors
I would like to tell you about the concrete, ecumenical experience of how Protestant and Catholic churches in Italy have been working together for years to practice peace and justice through the model of Humanitarian Corridors (HCs).
The spark that led us to design the HCs was the bitter awareness that the Mediterranean Sea has become the most dangerous border in the world: more than 32,000 (thousand) people have died and been missing since 2014 trying to reach the European coasts in search of a better life.
For all these unacceptable thousands of victims, more than a decade ago, the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI) decided to start the program called Mediterranean Hope precisely from the island of Lampedusa, the main transit point for migration flows in the Mediterranean Sea.
Faced with the injustice of the continuing deaths at sea of people fleeing war and persecution, FCEI has worked to find a safe and legal response to those dangerous journeys.
A small Protestant church such as the one in Italy immediately decided of joining its Catholic siblings (such as Sant'Egidio or Caritas) because the mission was important: to ensure hope for thousands of people who had fled from countries such as Syria, Libya, Eritrea, or Afghanistan.
We have been in many refugee camps in Lebanon, where entire families have been living in dilapidated tents for years, children have never gone to school, and have no prospect of a future. And in the past year, due to the war in Lebanon, the condition of refugees has been even more desperate. We have also met so many Afghan women, persecuted just because they attended university or chose to play a sport – for example, riding a bicycle.
As believers, we felt the need and responsibility to offer an alternative to these people, a response which was not only humanitarian but also political.
“Not because it was convenient but because it was right” quoting Martin Luther King.
In December 2015 the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, the Community of Sant’Egidio and the Waldensian and Methodist Churches signed (an agreement/protocol) the first Memorandum of Understanding with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior to give visas for “humanitarian reasons” to 1,000 vulnerable people in need of protection from Lebanon.
The Humanitarian Corridors are the concrete result of an ecumenical collaboration between Catholics and Protestants. The success of the HCs, as a nationally and internationally recognized model, enabled FCEI to sign over the last ten years another two agreements from Lebanon and two additional protocols from Libya1 and for Afghans. The Afghan protocol has also seen the growth of new partners including the Episcopal Italian Commission (CEI) and Caritas Italiana.
In nine years, the program has enabled about 7,000 refugees from countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Ethiopia, Iran, Pakistan, Libya and Niger to receive protection and reception in Italy.
Quoting Prof. Paolo Naso, one of the original designers of the HCs
"The humanitarian corridors have been an ecumenical preaching in the European political space, our way of saying that immigration laws are wrong and need to be changed. An ecumenical preaching, but also a secularly political action, aimed at building lobbies, seeking consensus and support in the European context".2
HCs are a safe and legal way to get to Europe, but they cannot be the only way. A European implementation of safe and legal passages is needed.
There shouldn’t be just one model of safe and legal pathways; each European country can and should find its own most effective model, and it is our responsibility as churches to support and facilitate this process.
In these times of high global geopolitical instability, the spread of populism and nationalist right-wingers, the answer cannot be one of closure.
Europe needs long-term solutions, not decisions based on pure political propaganda. What trends are we seeing in many European countries?
- suspension of the Schengen area and a contraction of the right of asylum
- suspension of evaluation of asylum applications for Syrians
- interruption of refugee programs such as resettlement
- externalization policies in countries such as Libya and Tunisia
- deportation of people to centers in Albania and outside the EU
- limitation of sea Search and Rescue operations
- increase in deaths and missing persons at the borders
The European Union, in this way, is more and more positioning itself on a sovereignist line and it is moving away from its founding values. Hoping to contain national-populism, it increasingly embraces its vision.3
The huge amount of money used to militarize borders, keep out refugees and (re)arm Europe could instead be spent on policies promoting peace and respect for human rights such as the right to integrity, mobility and to live in dignity.
As Italian Protestants, we strongly believe in the values of solidarity, peace and justice (such as social, climate, gender justice), and we recognize our responsibilities to those who are oppressed.
Humanitarian corridors and legal pathways are concrete ways of practising justice. And justice is connected to peace: there is no peace without justice.4
Closing questions to the speakers "If you were to adopt a resolution, what sentence would have to be included in it?"
A European implementation of safe and legal passages. Each European country should find its own most effective model, and learn from each other.
As churches, it is our responsibility to support and facilitate this process.
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1 The Libya protocol (then renewed in 2024) secured the arrival of a total of 2,000 mainly sub-Saharan beneficiaries removed from detention centers in Libya as well as urban areas.
2 https://www.nev.it/nev/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Paolo-Naso-Resistere-al-male.pdf
3 Maurizio Ambrosini, Avvenire, April 2025.
4 “Can we say, together, that peace must be just or it is not? Justice is as good as peace. How can we demand or even impose a peace that is not matched by a reasonable share of justice? The protection of fundamental rights, a people's right to self-determination, security within its borders. […] Peace is justice. Justice is peace.” (As note 2)
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