When Texas instructed its nonprofits to stop helping Syrian refugees, the state’s faith-based refugee services organizations banded together regardless of denomination to continue offering aid in spite of the order. The interfaith trend in refugee relief also persists overseas, where Evangelical and Catholic groups have come together to form a “humanitarian corridor connecting Morocco, Lebanon, and Italy in order to provide safe travel and relocation for an estimated 1,000 refugees from Africa and the Middle East threatened by war or famine.”
The corridor, a “a joint effort between the Federation of Evangelical Churches from Italy, the Tavola Valdese, which is a reformed Christian Church, and Sant’Egidio,” will offer transportation, food, lodging, healthcare, Italian lessons, and help finding a job to refugees who pass screening. The hope is to cut down on the dangers now notoriously associated with the passage from the middle east to Europe, including death at sea, disease, and abuses inflicted by traffickers. The corridor program is expected to cost upwards of $1.1 million USD.
The corridor’s organizers hope their project will encourage governments to reach out to refugees, and will unite Christians in the “protection of those most at risk.”