People on the Move webinar highlights migration challenges

Europe and US Southern border share characteristics around policy, harmful practices to displaced persons forced into migration

by Scott O’Neill | Presbyterian News Service

The second installment of the “People on the Move” webinar aired Monday.

LOUISVILLE — The PC(USA)’s World Mission Office of the Middle East and Europe, in conjunction with several denomination partners, held its second “People on the Move” webinar Monday. It featured representatives from Lesvos Solidarity (Greece) and Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans, located on the U.S./Mexico border. The webinar focused on the challenges faced by forced migration and global trends in migration policy, including externalization of borders, deterrence mechanisms, and capricious immigration legislation and its implications.

Luciano Kovacs, area coordinator of World Mission’s Middle East and Europe office, moderated the webinar and introduced both speakers.

Liza Papadimitriou

Liza Papadimitriou, Lesvos Solidarity’s Advocacy Manager, who’s been working on humanitarian affairs and advocacy in the field of forced migration in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and Lebanon with Doctors Without Borders and Lesvos Solidarity since 2015, was the first to speak. She focused on aspects of the Greek and Mediterranean migration experience.

She opened with a brief introduction describing Lesvos Solidarity, a grassroots organization located on Lesvos Island situated on the northeastern sea border between Greece and Turkey. Papadimitriou noted that Lesvos Island has been a traditional entry point for people forcibly displaced traveling the eastern Mediterranean route.

In 2023, Lesvos Solidarity provided dignified and safe housing to 32 women and children originating mainly from Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria and Afghanistan, according to Papadimitriou. 820 students were enrolled in Lesvos Solidarity’s educational programs and 1,500 people participated in awareness sessions, while hundreds more received psychosocial and medical support and had medical expenses covered. Lesvos Solidarity distributed more than 5,000 food baskets and food vouchers to locals and asylum seekers found in destitution and sustains 14 job positions for people of migrant or refugee backgrounds.

“Our primary goal is to provide direct support to individuals or groups threatened by social exclusion. These include people on the move but also locals found in extreme poverty or destitution,” she said. “We promote sustainable development through the implementation of a social economy that contributes directly to environmental awareness and protection. We strongly believe that the harmonious coexistence of locals, refugees and migrants with their environment can support unfolding every human being’s potential.”

Papadimitriou showed a slide displaying “passport strength” across the globe, segmented by countries whose nationals can travel without restrictions on their mobility, as opposed to countries whose nationals face significant barriers in acquiring visas for travel and other purposes. She noted that most of the forcibly displaced people transiting across Mediterranean routes originate primarily from the latter group of countries. A second map showed the number of refugees across different countries as of 2023, noting that the number of internally displaced persons (IDP)s is estimated to exceed 100 million — and is on the rise.

“Unlike what the popular myth suggests — that Europe has borne the brunt of receiving the most refugees — the reality is that most refugees are present in countries outside the European Union (EU) such as Turkey, Uganda and Pakistan,” said Papadimitriou. “What also stands out is that out of all the EU countries, … Germany and Poland host the most refugees. Most EU member states have a presence of less than 250,000 refugees and this includes frontline countries such as Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain, but also the most anti-migrant countries such as Hungary.”

She noted key measures that Europe has adopted that deal with the migratory phenomenon, naming three main Mediterranean migratory routes for everyone including unaccompanied minors: the Eastern Mediterranean route from Turkey to Greece, the Central Mediterranean route from Libya and Tunisia to Italy and Malta, and the Western Mediterranean route from Morocco mainly towards Spain.

The measures include:

• Securitization — building fences, much like the 140-kilometer fence located at the land border between Greece and Turkey
• Externalization — this includes EU member states’ international obligations to non-member countries, providing development funds in exchange for blocking migrants from transiting to Europe, and physical and structural violence
• Trapping thousands of men and children in prison-like camps so they can tell others intending to journey not to come to Europe because they will be treated like prisoners.

“With the so-called new migration pact, Europe has normalized harmful practices previously trialed in Greece and Italy; this policy has become the formal policy of all EU member states,” said Papadimitriou.

Unfortunately, noted Papadimitriou, these policies have not worked. According to the International Organization for Migration, between 2016 and May 2024, 69% of men, women, and children crossing the three migratory routes made it to Europe. Thirty percent of these migrants were intercepted at sea and returned — the majority to Libya, where Papadimitriou said the treatment towards migrants amounts to “crimes against humanity.”

Furthermore, said Papadimitriou, the EU migrant policies have led to a proliferation of illegal forced returns or collective expulsions, commonly known as pushbacks. Migrants are being forced to embark on more dangerous journeys, thus aggravating exponentially the cycle of violence, exploitation, and abuse in and around the Mediterranean. She also noted the larger human cost of European policies.

“Since 2014, more than 30,000 people have died and/or disappeared across the Mediterranean routes — and those numbers are a gross underestimation of the actual death toll,” she said. “Most of them drowned at sea along the Central Mediterranean, which is considered the deadliest route in the world today. Such deaths are preventable, and the measures taken by EU member states and institutions to curb migration flows have not had a positive impact in reducing the human cost of irregular migration.”

The Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer

The second speaker was the Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer, an ordained United Church of Christ minister. Influenced by his time studying and living in Latin America, Mayer and his family moved to the Borderlands a quarter-century ago so Mayer could serve as Senior Minister of the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Sahuarita, Arizona — just 35 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Mayer and his congregation have been key leaders among humanitarian groups in Southern Arizona. In 2005 they founded the Green Valley/Sahuarita Samaritans, a group that provides food, water and medical care to migrants in the desert.

Mayer began his presentation extolling the virtues and beauty of the region in which he serves — the Sonoran Desert —juxtaposing that with the government’s role in having weaponized the region for the last three decades.

“The area of the U.S.-Mexico border where I live and work is one of the most beautiful and biodiverse places in the country. It is lush with mesquite and palo verde trees, saguaro and prickly pear cactus, desert flowers, mountains and canyons,” said Mayer. “It is also extremely dangerous because of the high temperatures, and in the winter, it can get snowy and cold.  In the Sonoran Desert, everything will either bite you, prick you or sting you. For more than 30 years, the U.S. government has weaponized the Sonoran Desert by using it as a deterrent, building walls and barriers and pushing people to the most desolate and dangerous parts.”

Mayer notes there has been no meaningful immigration legislation in the last 30 years, only a strategy to secure the border with walls, border agents and checkpoints, drones and other technology devices. All of that has created a highly militarized zone that is ineffective in stopping migration.

“[This] militarized zone has not stopped immigration. The numbers ebb and flow, but in 2023 there were more than two million Border Patrol encounters, and even more are happening this year,” he said. “In the past 34 years there have been 4,288 deaths, but we know the numbers are three to four times higher. The dangers and risks have increased as people are pushed further and further into the most desolate and dangerous parts of the desert.”

Mayer has seen a transition serving and supporting migrants seeking asylum at the border. Mainly, he notes a feeling of desperation as Mexican cartels have become intimately involved in the economics of migration and border crossings, and the growth in the number of sending countries has increased.

“For many years it was just migrants crossing into the U.S. evading Border Patrol to come and work in the country,” said Mayer. “About eight years ago migrant families started arriving at the border to ask for asylum. At first, they arrived at the ports of entry and got a number and waited to have a credible fear interview. Extortion and other problems started to occur, and desperation grew, so people started appearing in the desert along the border wall, where they would wait for the Border Patrol to ask for asylum.”

Now migrants often wait for six months to eight months to get one of the 1,400 appointments each day, which means waiting in unsafe often violent and deadly situations and many do not have the luxury of waiting for an asylum hearing.

“The perfect storm exists along the U.S.-Mexico border: layers of militarization, the growth of the cartels, and, in the sending countries, violence, lack of work, climate change and desperation grow,” noted Mayer. “For years it was just people from Mexico and Central America that were arriving at the border. Then it grew to South American and Caribbean countries like Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Cuba and Haiti. Today it is not just Latin Americans that are arriving at the border.”

The humanitarian community has created camps along the border wall, providing food, water and medical care. They even offer a solar-powered satellite Wi-Fi system that allows migrants to get online to let loved ones know they are safe. The camps provide relief from the elements until the Border Patrol comes to pick up the migrants.

Kovacs then shifted the discussion to give each speaker a chance to talk about the advocacy tools each organization has at their disposal to speak truth to power in the respective regions they work in.

Papadimitriou noted the work of civil societies who are challenging the human rights violations embedded within EU policies.

“For civil society organizations in Italy and Greece, there is consensus on the detrimental consequences of these policies. This consensus allows us to advocate the way we know best — some are excellent in lobbying activities and silent advocacy, others in mobilization and denunciation, others in legal action, others target the local or national levels of policy making,” she said. “Migrants arriving irregularly are often criminalized, are extremely disenfranchised, marginalized and often in the context of migration management they are deprived of their agency. Civil society organizations give a platform for their voices to be heard and shed light to violations that would otherwise remain unspoken and unheard.”

Mayer spoke to the United States’ obsession with militarizing the border, noting it’s been the country’s only response to immigration challenges. Last year alone, the Biden administration spent more than $5 billion on border security, which has only led to catastrophic and deadly results for the environment, the treatment of asylum seekers and the growth of cartels monetizing the migration pipeline.

“The treatment of migrants and asylum seekers has progressively gotten worse over the past few years. The goal is to criminalize poverty and immigration, creating a variety of prevention through deterrence programs,” said Mayer. “Another effect of the ongoing militarization on the border and current policies have created is the growth and crushing power of the cartels. In our area of the border the cartel is charging $6,000 to $10,000 whether you are 6 months old or 80 years old. They hold people in hotels south of the border until they can pay. It has become extremely lucrative to push 100 or 200 people across the border a day and it doesn’t matter to the cartel if they are deported or not. They make significant profit.”

A brief Q&A session followed, which focused on how to educate congregations on emphasizing help and more tolerance for immigrants.

“Anti-racism training in churches and the community is critically important because we know there are immigrant communities in literally every community in the U.S.,” said Mayer. “Sometimes we don’t see them because they don’t frequent where migrants may be frequenting, and they have not made the effort to actively find the border where they are living. We really need to encourage our faith communities to find these [migrant] communities and accompany them, because there is intensity surrounding them. They don’t feel like they have many allies, and we need to be better to our immigrant communities.”

This was the second webinar in a series that follows up on a regional consultation held in Rome earlier this year which addressed the migration crisis.

The first webinar in the “People on the Move” series, held in May, focused on migration in Europe and Afghanistan and factors like violence, conflict, climate change, and natural disasters all contributing to people being forced to seek safety and security outside their homeland.

Webinar co-sponsors include the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI), the Reformed Church in America, and the Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ.