Working together to help migrants and refugees

JOHOR BAHRU (Herald Malaysia): The International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) — Asia Working Group (AWG) meeting January 5-7 at MAJODI Centre was hosted by Bishop Bernard Paul, President of the Episcopal Commission of Migrants and Itinerants of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei (CBC-MSB).

ICMC is a registered non-profit organisation working in the areas of refugees and migration issues and AWG emerged due to an increased need to strengthen the voice of the Asian Church and to foster exchange of information on Migration. ICMC-AWG began in 2008 and since then, the group meets annually in different Asian countries.

Present were the ICMC General Secretary, Msgr Robert Vitillo, Sr Maryanne Loughry, Treasurer of the Governing Committee of ICMC, Fr Fabio Baggio, Undersecretary of Migrants and Refugees Section – Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Naoko Maruyama, Regional Coordinator East and Southeast Asia, Migrants and Refugees Section – Integral Human Development, Bishop Ruperto, President of the Asia Working Group (AWG), Fr Graziano Battistella and groups such as Global Shepherds (an organisation affiliated to the Good Shepherd Sisters), ICMC Malaysia and Pakistan.

The majority of participants are from the Episcopal Commission of Migrants and Itinerants of the Catholic Bishop Conference of Asia/Pacific such as India, Korea, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. The group consists of the bishops, priests, religious, deacons, lay persons and NGOs.

We began with an opening prayer and a brief introduction by all the participants, followed by a welcome address from Bishop Ruperto and Msgr Robert J. Vitillo. Bishop Ruperto reminded the participants that it is vital to listen and hear the life experiences of Migrants and Refugees. We may not give a complete solution or share the best answer but, by listening, we are able to support and stand by the migrants and refugees. He also stressed the importance of working together.

Bishop Bernard Paul was unable to attend and Fr Damian read out the welcome address. Bishop Bernard had words of encouragement for the participants, reminding us that we are migrants or children of migrants in our land. He also stressed the importance of Pope Francis’ four action verbs of compassion: to welcome, to protect, to promote and to integrate, when we address the issues of migrants and refugees.

Lastly, Msgr Vitillo stressed that we may not have many resources to work on together, we are the resources.

We proceeded with sharing from the members of the working group about their responses to the three priorities chosen by the Working Group at the 2017 Meeting in Bangkok: Responses to Unaccompanied Child Migrants, Advocacy for Human Rights of Labor Migrants and responses to their needs, and Efforts to Eliminate Human Trafficking

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online