24 migrants who died in this week’s tragedy off the coast of Libya were buried this morning after a remembrance ceremony held at Mater Dei Hospital. The victims are only a small fraction of the 700 or more people who died in the tragedy.
They were laid to rest in an inter-faith ceremony led by Gozo Bishop Mario Grech and Imam El Sadi.
A number of dignitaries attended the event, including Presiden Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil and Members of Parliament. Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos and Minister of Social Solidarity of Greece Theano Fotiou also attended.
The bouquets of flowers that were sent by Maltese people after a call made by the Mater Dei Hospital CEO were lined up in the area leading to the helipad where the ceremony took place.
The caskets of the migrants were carried into the marquee tent by members of the Armed Forces.
One of the caskets was white, and it is that carrying the adolescent migrant who was among the 24 corpses recovered. The silence was broken by the cries of several members of the migrant community in Malta. A woman, wearing a baseball cap with ‘I am a survivor’ written on it, stood out from the crowd.
"The migrants were escaping from a desperate situation, they were trying to find freedom and a better life,” Bishop Grech said during the service. “There are 24 unidentified bodies here but we know that there are hundreds more at the bottom of the cemetery that the Mediterranean has become. We do not know their names, justthat they were trying to seek a better and more peaceful life. Irrespective of religion, culture and race, we know that they are our fellow human beings.”
Mgr. Grech said that, facing this situation, politicians can either quote the law and squabble over who is responsible for the rescue operations or they can forget all of this and help those in peril. “The way of the law is not enough to tackle the emerging migrant crisis. By choosing not to hear the cries for help of those in desperate need of help the situation will deflate into what Pope Francis calls the globalization of indifference.”
Merciful love demanded a reaching out to the roots which was causing this exodus, he said. "Face the situation with the eyes of the good Samaritan," he said.
Imam El Sadi thanked the Maltese and Italian governments and people for helping migrants in distress. “All are brothers before God. All people are migrants and their life was a journey." What had happened, he said, should raise awareness, and he went on to ask whether enough was being done to help the migrants at sea.
Later, two AFM bandsmen sounded the last post and the Bishop and the Imam read out the funeral rites of both religions. The caskets where then loaded into hearses and taken to Addolorata Cemetery, where the migrants will be buried in common graves.
Friday 24 April 2015
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2015-04-23/local-news/Inter-faith-service-for-dead-migrants-at-Mater-Dei-Hospital-6736134318
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