“Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
—Matthew 25:44-45
On Wednesday, November 24, twenty-seven people seeking to cross the English Channel from the northern coast of France drowned when their inflatable raft capsized. The vessel they were using, utterly unseaworthy for either the conditions of the Channel or the number of people on board, had apparently been provided to them by the “people smugglers” who had collected their money for a chance to transit to the United Kingdom.
The French authorities, knowing that this wretched business is taking place on their shores, did nothing either to stop this eminently avoidable tragedy or apprehend the smugglers. The raft carrying the refugees sank in waters within the maritime boundaries claimed by France.
France argues that it is only a waypoint for those seeking asylum in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom argues that France ought to be doing more to intercept these refugees before their desperation leads them to take to sea. While these interminable arguments provide grist for the media, human lives are lost as though they meant nothing.
That is unacceptable.
The authorities have also threatened to initiate criminal proceedings against some 170 leaders of non-governmental organizations—including priests, pastors, and religious leaders—whose only “crimes” were efforts to provide basic shelter and nourishment for those whose search for safety and security had led them as far as France’s shores.
The twenty-seven souls lost on November 24 are only the most recent lost to the indifference, negligence, or contempt of governments. The non-profit United Against Refugee Deaths has documented nearly forty-five thousand deaths of asylum-seekers since 1993.
It is outrageous that these deaths should have occurred—or more accurately, that they were permitted by those who had both the power and the capability to stop them from happening. But even more scandalous is the impunity with which government leaders permit this loss of human life, preferring instead to believe they hold no responsibility for the needless deaths and preventable suffering.
It is difficult to comprehend governments standing in the way of charitable agencies seeking only to provide for the basic humanitarian needs of those who are suffering, exposed, and starving. Such actions are more worthy of authoritarian regimes than on governments supposedly founded on a commitment to the principle of universal human rights. And in the end, they are a fundamental violation of the law of love that calls on each of us to love our neighbors as ourselves—remembering that no human being is not our neighbor.
The Episcopal Church in Europe knows itself to be a migrant church. We first came here alongside those who traveled from the United States, and who sought to establish for themselves communities fostering familiar forms of worship and religious education.
But we are no longer only a church of migrants. Americans are no longer a majority in most of our communities. The communities of the Episcopal Church in Europe have grown beyond their American origins into vibrant communities of faithful people from all over the world—including those who are among us as refugees and asylum-seekers.
What matters far more to us than national origins is human dignity; and we are all bound by the language of our baptismal covenant to acknowledge, and act in accordance with, the ideal of justice that arises from a fundamental belief in the equal dignity of all human beings in the sight of God—regardless of where they were born or what they may believe.
We do not presume to advise the governments of our nations on how to share responsibility for the plight of those fleeing war, violence, despair, and corruption. We are clear, however, that they hold this responsibility—for the same reason that we all hold a responsibility to the least, the last, and the lost among us.
As both citizens and Christians, we are bound to call on all governments to take immediate steps toward permitting both faith-based and secular charitable agencies seeking to provide humanitarian assistance to have access to the places vulnerable populations gather, and to offer what support they can without qualification or need for accreditation. A way must be found to place the basic human needs of the suffering first in the calculus of interests—at least among governments that claim to be based on an irreducible respect for the basic rights of each human being.
Our communities stand ready to act in any way consistent with our beliefs and commitments if called upon for assistance by the civil authorities. But while the arguments and posturing continue, we insist that basic humanitarian assistance be made available immediately. The lack of such assistance ultimately undermines the credibility of governments in their claim to respect the dignity and rights of individuals—and that, in turn, only damages the legitimacy of democratic governments at a moment when the world questions their capacity to foster human flourishing.
