Take another scenario, also close
to Victoria, and also during the morning rush hour only a few days ago. Two
men, both neatly dressed and in their early 40s, collided in the early morning
rush hour close to Victoria Station. One was black, the other olive-skinned. “Don’t
you dare bump into me!” The black man looked around in amazement. Before he could
speak, a clenched fist punched into his face. Instantly, the two men rolled
around the ground, their fight increasing in violence as the one tried to
defend himself and the other attempted to inflict punishment. A few younger men
courageously stepped from the crowd and separated the two fighters, who stood
glaring at each other. The attacker hurled verbal abuse at the other and
suddenly slammed into him once more. Again they were separated, but the fight
had not finished. Again, they rolled around on the pavement, punching and
kicking each other, one in attack and one in self-defence. Things threatened to
become very serious indeed. An unusually tall stranger in a dark blue pinstripe
suit grabbed the shoulder of the assailant, flashed a badge in a black leather
holder and hauled him upright. Was he associated with New Scotland Yard, not
much further down the road? Were he and the two who escorted him actually
off-duty policemen on their way to work? Who knows? What caused the man of
Middle Eastern appearance to suddenly ‘flip’? What was his story?
Who fitted the stereotype? All
three men in these two incidents were immigrants. All were educated, but one
laboured peacefully at one of Britain’s most menial tasks. One was an innocent
victim of violence. The third was aggressive – and yet his reaction was so
extraordinary and over-the-top that, surely, there was an agenda hidden from
onlookers.
Some years ago a teacher in an
Australian school with a high immigrant population said that most of the fights
involved students of Lebanese origin. “They have grown up in the midst of
violence and bloodshed”, he explained. “They have not yet had time to learn
that they are safe and they don’t need to fight. All they have known is
fighting and killing. They need time.”
Pope Francis recently caused the
Italian authorities to grit their teeth and pretend that they were delighted. After
all, Italy has so many magnificent places which would look glorious when
highlighted by the world’s media. Why should the Pope choose the island of
Lampedusa for his first visit outside Rome, targeted destination for hundreds
of thousands of would-be migrants from North Africa, the Middle East and Asia?
Italy has a major headache with
Lampedusa, where migrants often outnumber the native population of 6,000.
Facilities apparently cater for 800 people in improvised camps around the
island, but this number can be exceeded in a single day. Vatican Radio said
that “The temporary immigrant reception centre of Lampedusa, which had already
come under criticism by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that
stated it was inadequate, was so overcrowded that thousands of people were
sleeping outdoors and in shelters provided by the local parish and by ordinary
Lampedusa inhabitants.” The UNHCR acknowledged that "most are seeking
employment and better economic opportunities, rather than international
protection".
Yet by the time that a boatload
of would-be migrants reaches Lampedusa, most are exhausted, dehydrated, hungry
and thirsty. Many have scraped together everything they possess and have paid
exorbitant fees to profiteers and people traffickers for a seat in an
overcrowded, overloaded and probably unseaworthy boat which risks the lives of
its passengers and offers little or no space for any luggage. Whether people
are economic migrants or not, they are vulnerable to exploitation in their
eagerness to leave their country of origin in order to travel to Europe, where
streets are apparently paved with gold. Even on the day of Pope Francis’ visit,
a few hours before his arrival, a boat carrying 166 people from Mali landed in
Lampedusa. The following day, another 340 reached the island’s shores.
Sadly, accurate numbers of
migrants are hard to obtain: overburdened and poorly-maintained boats regularly
sink. An estimated 20,000 people are known to have drowned over the years and
unknown numbers of others are presumed lost without trace. It was to venerate
the memory of so many shattered lives and dreams that the Pope’s visit to
Lampedusa included a boat trip on a small Coast Guard vessel, escorted by
fishermen, to lay a wreath at sea. Beautifully, the cross that he carried, the
simple and beautiful chalice which he used for Mass and the lectern from which
he later preached were constructed from wood rescued from shipwrecks.
“Immigrants who died at sea, from that boat that,
instead of being a way of hope was a way of death... unfortunately repeated so
many times... And then I felt that I ought to come here today to pray, to make
a gesture of closeness, but also to reawaken our consciences so that what
happened would not be repeated. Not repeated, please!”
He continued. "These, our brothers and sisters,
seek to leave difficult situations in order to find a little serenity and peace.
They seek a better place for themselves and for their families – but they found
death. How many times to those who seek this not find understanding, do not
find welcome, do not find solidarity!"
Pope Francis added, “"We have fallen into the
hypocritical attitude of the priest and of the servant of the altar that Jesus
speaks about in the parable of the Good Samaritan: We look upon the brother
half-dead by the roadside, perhaps we think ‘poor guy’, and we continue on our
way. It’s none of our business and we feel fine with this. We feel at peace
with this, we feel fine! The culture of well-being, that makes us think of
ourselves, that makes us insensitive to the cries of others, that makes us live
in soap bubbles, that are beautiful but are nothing, are illusions of futility,
of the transient, that brings indifference to others, that brings even the
globalization of indifference. In this world of globalization we have fallen
into a globalization of indifference. We are accustomed to the suffering of
others. It doesn’t concern us: it’s none of our business."
What were the stories of the three immigrants at Victoria
Station a few days ago? What was their reception when they landed in this
country? How often do we group people as ‘immigrants’, a faceless mass, whose
qualities and talents, joys and sorrows, successes and failures we overlook in
prejudice. Pope Francis talked to some of the migrants at Lampedusa. How often
do we speak to those who come to Britain?
The Pope cared. Do we?
