XVIII A Proper Welcome for Refugees

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” With these words Jesus put himself in the lives of refugees. 

The pivotal word is “welcomed.” To get the full meaning, we must let the Greek tell us more. It uses two words for welcome: go and with. If we put the two translations together, he is saying, “You welcomed me into your home.”  The proper welcome for refugees moves well beyond housing and subsidies. 

Let’s imagine new refugees welcomed into our home. There, a relaxed and safe atmosphere pervades around a table. We ask what they most want. Immediately comes their response—to tell us their story! When they sense that we will listen, they start. What unfolds is their trauma, lanced and now disburdened.

That is the “welcome” they have needed—to find people who will allow them to retrace the horrors on their journey; to find compassion that lets the sorrow and anger spew out; to find acceptance that honors their dignity and their future. That is why the disclosures around the table hold such value to them.

Their trauma is really a garbage pit, a stench-filled inferno where are found the wickednesses visited on this caste of supposed bottom-dwellers. The cruelties are unimagined by us, for they are out of our sight. Consider what we might hear:

Separation: Their family sent them away—away from warfare or hunger, sent away from those they loved, parted perhaps permanently. 

Shock: No itinerary prepared them for the dangers, the strange expectations of each port or station. Nothing they encountered resembled what they left at home. So strange, and often so irreverent.

Refusal: More than a border that refuses entry, the border guards treat them like vermin, unclean and unwanted. “Go back. We don’’t want you.” This was more than refusal—this was disgrace, insult, and ridicule.

Abuse: They survived an open-ended season for this. The forms of abuse reflect savage rules for those with power or authority. And the refugee knows not to expect justice or revenge.

Emotions emptied: No one hears and no one cares what goes on inside them. Yet the sorrow, the fear, the despair kept digging until they left a void. How hard to press on when the purpose is so ephemeral.

Years: How long will this take? How many times to wire more money to someone somewhere? Where will the next stop be, and what will happen to us there? All with the ever-loosening connection with home.

Loneliness: For single refugees, there are no friends, only temporary traveling companions. For families, the binding gets tighter and tighter, for trustworthy people are scarce.

Another Greek word carries the import of this welcoming experience: catharsis.

In 2018 Constance and I traveled to several refugee ministries in Europe. We met some refugees and heard stories that have stayed with us. Here are just four:

A family from Iran was in Athens, awaiting documents for passage to England. They had two sons, both sharp, intelligent, and athletic. Due to lacking documents and friends, they lived alone. With great sadness, our interpreter told us how these boys had simply lost three years of schooling and of their childhood, years that would never be replaced.

A woman told how she walked the final stretch from Serbia into Greece. It was winter.  In the last two days she had no feeling in her feet. She made the observation that if she had died along the way, no one would have known or cared.

In the anarchist area of Athens we visited a large building that housed three families. One of them was so stunned from their ordeal that they chose to pass their days alone, pulling themselves together to face the unknown future.

I heard this story through a Syrian Christian. A Turkish man was converted through this man. Later he was jailed but kept his faith, eagerly sharing with others in jail. One night the Turk telephoned the Syrian Christian, speaking very loudly. When asked why he was shouting, he explained it this way: In the cell were several Moroccan inquirers, but they did not speak Turkish or Syrian. A Moroccan who spoke Syrian borrowed a phone and asked the Christian to explain Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. The Moroccan held the phone up and translated, so all the others in the cell could hear. And that during the quarantine.

These refugees came to European countries and found solace and sanctuary at several ministries. In spite of much darkness, the Holy Spirit sought the lost and brought life. Here are some of the places where we knew he was present: 

Lesvos Island and Moria: This Greek island lies about four miles from the Turkish coast. In the mid-2010s thousands crossed the sea and landed there. Greece had a military base, Moria. There they found food and shelter, information about documents, and an unending supply of diapers.

Bridges: Word spread that in Athens there was a safe harbor for comfort and support. It was named “Bridges.” The stream of refugees going through those doors found people who spoke their language, who sat and listened, who prayed for them, and, upon request, would give Bibles in their language and bring them into a prayer group.

Dignity: Refugees traveling in the Czech Republic would pass highway signs telling them to go home, that they are a blot on life the Czech citizenry. Many find a different reception in Prague at a place called “Dignity.” There they find sanctuary, prayer, miracles, process for papers, and even Christmas packages taken to their camps far from the city. 

Oasis: When the thousands of Afghan refugees were arriving in Virginia, this ministry in Arlington sent out word asking for help. What Oasis wanted were families who would take in these refugees from Kabul. The response was both abundant money for expenses and homes for Afghans.

Tampa Muslim Outreach: The welcome there means English classes, meals, and safe gatherings for the huge Muslim population. In our visit there the sweet aroma of Jesus Christ was carried not only by Arab-speaking leaders but also by boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I’m sure the creativity of TMO has brought in other creative innovations, but I remember how many smiles those doughnuts brought.

Actually, there are more pivotal words in what Jesus said, not just “welcomed.” What he said was, “When you comfort these refugees in their misery of separation, loss, and abuse, when you  bring in people from Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Libya, and Ukraine, when you have listened and loved them, you have done this unto me.” 

XVII The Widows of South Sudan

South Sudan is the world’s newest country, having gained its independence in 2011. Sadly, in that short time it has become a study of a nation’s collapse. 

Though South Sudan is oil-rich, pervasive corruption and nine years of tribal warfare have left it the world’s poorest country. Heavy inflation has critically reduced food production, leaving 7 million people on the edge of starvation. Almost 60% of the population are refugees of one category or another.

I will turn our attention to the widows of South Sudan. We know God’s eye is on the fatherless, so his compassion touches the widows who hold the fatherless. They are the ones left with babes in arms, with makeshift “homes” in the vast UN camps, with distress for their own safety, and grief for the losses which their children suffer. 

The following analysis will reveal how widows suffer the most and in the worst ways.

Displacement 

Flooding by the White Nile has left thousands of homes in knee-deep water. This has forced the people into homeless. But to flee where for shelter? Other villages have received hundreds of refugees already, and UN camps are overcrowded.

Fully 2 million people are Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). IDP translates into women carrying their few possessions, gleaning what food they can find, and sorrowing for the past day and for what awaits in the next. Over half of these refugees are children under 14.

Abuse

Women leave the confines of the UN camps at high risk. There, beyond the security of the camp, they face the danger of rape. In villages where there is no protection, raping takes place frequently and publicly—in front of children and in front of neighbors. These often result in death.

To exacerbate the crime, AIDS is widespread among the men, who, by raping, pass it to the widows. And in the worst irony of the atrocity, the shame of this brutality lies not upon the barbaric men but on the widows. 

Infants and children 
Disaster strikes these in three ways, each one almost invisible.

The number of children with kwashiorkor is in the hundreds of thousands. Kwashiorkor is a disease of protein deficiency in infants. That, in turn, results in under-developed brain tissue, which leads to lower IQ. The threat of this disease lies with malnutrition, a by-product of food scarcity.

Education is a priority for their children, but life interrupts that, also. A convergence of hope and corruption hit schools recently. The United Kingdom gave thousands of books for schools to be distributed at no cost. They became available at many locations—for sale at the local market.

Children missing their childhood is an invisible loss. They will not have memories of playgrounds, of picnics with family, of reading books about other children. They will not go through the natural growth, the fun, the challenges of becoming a teenager. What is even worse, they will not know that they have missed these “normal” experiences. 

Status of Women

Their “status” demands that they do manual labor, bear children, make a home. Their status permits sexual abuse on them, female genital mutilation, shameful acts perpetrated in front of their children. They do not have funds or means of travel to barter for food for their children. 

Literacy, always a path of hope, is about 45% in South Sudan, but for women, less than 28%. That level is usually below 8th grade. 

That is why I say that widows suffer the most and in worst ways.
 

Any discussion of refugees leads to the hope of donor relief. For that, the donor looks for certain marks: familiarity with the circumstances, sympathy for the victims, and prospects for their future. Let me apply these criteria to South Sudan.

Familiarity with the circumstances:

It is a long way from anywhere to the airport in Juba. On arrival come warnings of danger. Then come the high prices, followed by neglected roads, checkpoints, tutorials in dealing with corruption, and shocking views of poverty and men with machine guns. It’s a long way to South Sudan, and it is easy to see why so few make the journey.

Sympathy for the cause:

In the reality of tribal warfare, sympathy means supporting either the Dinka or the Nuer. Or it means, who on the outside really cares?

Prospects for their future:
A leader from one of the Balkan nations recently expressed why he supported Ukrainian refugees over Africans: They look like us, they have degrees, they are leaders, they will return and rebuild. OK. I really don’t need to put those remarks into the context of South Sudanese widows, do I?

But they do have donor support.  The supreme donor is God and his gift is passionate love and care for the widows and the fatherless. This is not an academic statement. The reality of this truth almost literally drenches them, bringing a hope that is almost palpable. 

Within the generic grouping of them as “God’s Other Children,” many of them have moved under the shadow of his wings. They are sweetly trusting and ever faithful. These know that their cries are heard by their heavenly father and that they are counted as his beloved children. 

This drenching, this palpable assurance brings exuberant excitement. When they gather under a bamboo tree or a roof, and when the catechist has come and brought to them Bibles, and when he reads them reminders of God’s love and care, light shines!

The catechist could choose a text like Psalm 10. From it he would read how God does not forget the helpless, how he will lift up his hand to break the arm of the wicked. He hears the desire of the afflicted and listens to their cry. The Psalm tells them that God defends the fatherless and the oppressed, will bring justice, has grief and sorrow for them, and finally declares that no one will terrify them anymore. The worship this elicits is filled with extreme energy and joy. So I am told. 

A friend and I were talking the other day about this Psalm and how we respond in our services—exhibiting our typical worship posture of hands in pocket, no expression on face, and certainly no perceptible movement. That’s because our trials and challenges bear no resemblance to the trials and horrors of these widows. And because we are so very reverent White people!

Not so for the widows of South Sudan. When they hear of God’s promises, that hope, those words of comfort and assurances—they enter the holy of holies, angels cheerlead them, the heavenly host is drowned out! The Spirit is alive in depths and ways we know not of. Their joy is more precious than gold, and sweeter also than honey from the honeycomb. All will be well. They know.

Do you think they keep their hands in pockets and no expression on their face? Can you imagine them with no movement? I think not.

XVI Refugees: and the Crises that create them

This series focuses on people who are considered unimportant, unworthy of attention, and without inherent dignity. It concludes with refugees, the last group from the parable of “The Sheep and the Goats.” Along with the hungry, the slaves, and the poor, they are counted among the least of Christ’s brothers. He said about them, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me. What you have done for them, you have done it unto me.”

This will consist of three articles: the crisis that creates refugees, the journey they take to freedom, and the welcome they receive. 

Obviously, the most prominent refugees today are the Ukrainians. About 3 million of them have escaped the violence, and the displaced people remaining inside number many more. But there are other refugees on the global map today, millions who are barely remembered or noticed. That is the reason why I turn to refugees in Tigray, Ethiopia; in detention centers in Libya; in Rohingya camps in Bangladesh; and internally displaced persons in Syria. 

In each case, we will see inhumane treatment, abuse, and a blind eye by the powerful. The recurring impression is that concern for their plight is waning.

Tigray Province, Ethiopia

Eritrea and Ethiopia have been at war for years. Thousands of Eritreans have relocated south of the border in the province of Tigray. There they have found no protection. The Eritrean government sees them as defectors, and the Ethiopians see them as the enemy. They are fully exposed to brutality from both sides. As recently as January, heavy airstrikes by one side or the other hit their camps.

In the masses of these camps, many children become separated from their families and are trafficked to other countries. Only 7000 trucks with humanitarian goods have gotten through in the past three years. World Food Program calculates that those represent less than 10% of the trucks needed.  900,000 are at or below the level of food scarcity, and 1,200 people starve to death each day. 

Hope for international relief lessens by the day.

Libya

This country has been a destination for refugees departing its shores for Italy and Greece. The European Union has sent 450 million Euros to the Libyan government to improve the living conditions for the refugees who are detained there. Sadly, the money has been diverted to warlords and the militia, and the centers have become prisons.

The flight of the refugees takes them from their villages to the Mediterranean, to flimsy boats, to “rescue” by the Coast Guard, back to Libya. There, some are incarcerated at detention sites while others are trafficked to other parts of the world. They commonly face extortion, with a price that further impoverishes their families. 

Most of the refugees have traveled from Sub-Saharan Africa. They become subject to abuse, torture, and exploitation. They are trafficked or removed to other camps. They discover racism and the truth behind the frequent warning, “Libya is not safe for Black Africans.” For these people, the information is scarce and the attention is waning.

Rohingya of Myanmar and Bangladesh

Something happened in the year 2017 in Rohingya camps near Burmese villages. Though there is dispute about what the event was, what is not disputed is that it was a spark that set off a cataclysmic Rohingya disaster. Within months, most of the Rohingya population was forcibly displaced, villages were burnt, women were raped, and thousands began their move to safer places. 

600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar where they face the brutality of the military. Earlier this week the United States Department of State declared that the Myanmar military was guilty of genocide on the Rohingya. This is but the eighth time such a declaration of genocide has been made by the United States.

900,000 Rohingya have relocated to Bangladesh where they have been placed in huge camps. These are surrounded by barbed wire. They are overcrowded and lack sanitation and sewage. The location of the camps has frequent flooding, landslides, fires, and cyclones. 5,000 of those in the camps do not have roofs over their heads. 

The plan of the Bangladesh government is to move all of them to Bhasan Char, an isolated island in the Bay of Bengal. Rights advocates have pointed out that this will make access to food and other supplies most difficult and egress for medical care almost impossible. The outcry for the Rohingya is rarely in the news and is almost muted. 

Syria

The civil war in Syria began ten years ago. Back then, many Syrians were able to leave the country, going across from Turkey to Greece.

Since that time, the stream of refugees has diminished, but within Syria are over 6 million displaced people. Like the camps for the Rohingya, these camps lack adequate sewage and sanitation. Food and other humanitarian supplies do not get through. Many report that they get one meal a day, some less. Medical assistance is nearly non-existent. Reports tell of mothers no longer knowing why their children die, since there are no diagnoses and no medicines. 

The circumstances in Syria render these internally displaced people as pawns in the geopolitical situation. They may have permission to leave the camps and return home. Those who do, however, are arrested and subject to extra-judicial smuggling and killings. But again, after ten years, we hardly remember the atrocities of Aleppo and the Yazidis. 

Next week we will look at South Sudan. For now, as a conclusion to this dreary report, I turn to Jane Austen and the Psalmist.

“The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.” Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice

“Do not put your trust in princes,
    in mortals, in whom there is no help.
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
    whose hope is in the Lord their God.”    Psalm 146:2, 5

XIII Seeing the Faces of Slaves

Slavery has many disguises. Each one deepens the malevolence of its evil. Slaves are out of sight. We see no interviews with workers in garment factories, no videos of raids to brothels, no stories of children in mines. All of that is kept behind closed doors. The disguises have a job to play. As a result, we the public are deprived of knowing and then caring.

There are reasons for this pall of secrecy. The conditions which enforce slavery, if known to the public, would horrify. These conditions are seamy, shocking, and subtle. 

The seamy side enters with the advent of streaming. Previously, voyeurs had magazines, novels, and movies. Viewing was thus restricted. With streaming, salacious life has been brought to the digital world. And, yes, it has been monetized. Darkness has brought desecrated wealth to many.

The Philippines initiates the highest volume of streaming sexual scenes. A schematic of the IP sites going out from the hubs in Manila covers the earth. Instantly, what was done in a back room can now be viewed — for a fee — in bars, bedrooms, and brothels around the world. Mark you, the ages of those forced to engage in the scenes begin with pre-teens.

[Source:https://ijmstoragelive.blob.core.windows.net/ijmna/documents/studies/Final_OSEC-Public-Summary_05_20_2020_2021-02-05-055202.pdf?mtime=20210204215202&focal=none]

This industry has a supply chain—people who will become the subjects. Some of these are victims of what are called “left-behind children.” This mainly refers to China where masses have  moved to the urban areas. The lure is for better jobs and more opportunity in the cities than in the rural areas. 

What often happens is the parents make these shifts, leaving behind the children. These become the vulnerable, the fearful, the naive, and the victims of “friends” and “relatives” who will offer them a home and a family. The children follow, only to discover themselves smuggled to places like where filming takes place in Manila. 

The subtle can also be located in China. With the one-child policy in place for many years, the results have been an imbalance of gender. The men outnumber the women to the extent that finding a wife has become difficult. Adding to the problem is the freedom that many women are treasuring, as they become middle-class, wealthy, and enjoying single life. 

One sinister solution has been smuggling women from North Korea into China with the promise of marriage. The fee is hefty—in the thousands of dollars— and is readily paid. They are entering nothing but forced marriages, sexual slavery, and other hardships.

“Snakeheads” was the term for these smugglers in China. They would arrange for women and children to be duped and then moved to countries in the West. The fee was as high as $30,000. Those who made the trip then had to repay the smuggler, basically becoming enslaved in the garment shops, brothels, or other form of forced labor. 

In the mid-2010s the leaders of the Snakeheads were arrested and sent to prison. Since then the mafia-like organization no longer runs under that name, but runs nonetheless.

The shocking piece of slavery is found in children in armies. While the numbers are hard to pin down, the estimate is between 250,000 and 300,000. 40% of them are girls. They are mostly in the para-military armies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, and other places of war. 

[Source: https://theirworld.org/explainers/child-soldiers#section-5]

What raises the shock level is that many of these children volunteer to join! Some, to be sure, are kidnapped and stolen. But many turn up at the camps and ask to join. Their reality sees the alternatives as grim: scarce food, families without either or both parents, and fear that they might become the target of the marauding gangs. For them, joining the army is seen as the solution to their plight. 

There are grim pictures indeed, but these are pictures rarely seen. Slavery has disguises. The victims remain unseen. Sadly, this sets them apart from God’s Other Children. The persecuted Christians, for example, get hearings, advocates, and stories. The hungry are brought before us by photographers and news stories. But the slaves—the prostitutes, workers who make our shoes, laborers in brick kilns, children who carry guns—they are nearly invisible.

Which takes me to the question I ask at the end of these articles:

What can we do to help them? The right answer is: Weep. “Weep with those who weep,” we are told. But how can we weep for those we do not see?

The rule of thumb goes like this: “Put a face on them.”  Yes, that is what this needs—a way to bring them into the open, a way for us to see their faces, a way to see and hear about their hurts and wounds. Then, what they are experiencing will be as real to us as the faces we see in our own families. And that is my suggestion.

I ask you to put the faces of your children and grandchildren on the slaves at the kilns, the girls behind the doors of brothels, boys in the coal mines. See them as you see your own children. I put the faces of my grandsons on the boys who carry guns or hover over garments. I put the faces of my granddaughters on the girls who are taken and abused.  By this, we remove the disguises.

Do you have sons and grandsons, daughters and granddaughters? No, you would not wish any of this for them. If so, would it not make you weep?