TRAFFICKING AND MIGRANTS

Pope Francis: “Movements of people, although entailing challenges and sufferings, are enriching our communities”

“Migration is not always a happy experience. Worse, think of the devastating trips forced on the victims of human trafficking. Yet even they may occasionally be set free. This is what happened to Joseph, youngest son of Jacob. Sold as a slave by his jealous brothers, he became a trusted deputy of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Pope Francis wrote this in the Preface to “Lights on the Path of Hope”, a collection of the teachings of the Holy Father on migrants, refugees and trafficking from the beginning of his papacy to the end of 2017. “There are also the desperate flights of refugees, an experience that Jesus himself underwent” with his parents, the Pope continued: “Indeed, like human history, the history of salvation has been marked by displacements of every sort – migration, exile, flight, exodus – and yet all reaching out with hope for a better future elsewhere. And even when the displacement is a criminal enterprise, as in the case of trafficking, let no one be robbed of the hope of being rescued and set free”. Finally, Pope Francis also recalled that “in our time too, movements of people, although entailing challenges and sufferings, are enriching our communities, local Churches and societies in every continent”.