Joanna Moorhead reports from Rome on how 12 Syrians were plucked from a Greek refugee camp by Pope Francis in April and have settled in the Eternal City
Joanna Moorhead
Nour Essa and Hasan Zaheda had heard rumours that Pope Francis was due to visit the refugee camp where they were living in Lesbos: but they could never have imagined how radically it was going to change their lives, and that of their two-year-old son Riad.
“People were saying, the Pope is coming – but it was unclear whether he would actually come to our camp,” says Nour, 30. It was mid-April; Nour and Hasan had been in the Greek camp for several weeks after escaping from Syria in an overcrowded rubber boat.
“The living conditions were not appalling, but they were deteriorating,” remembers Nour. “More people were arriving, the place was getting overcrowded, there weren’t enough toilets and we were worried about the water supply.”
The couple were also concerned about Riad. “It was no life for a young child,” says Hasan. “His whole life had been disrupted by us having to get out of Syria, and then we were living in this place with no idea what our future held. I was worried about the effects on his development.”
And then, the evening before the day when the Pope was rumoured to be arriving, Nour and Hasan were called to a meeting.
Safe
“There was this lady interviewing families and we were one of them. She wanted to know why we left Syria – it was because of the war, we weren’t safe there – and then she said, would you like to go to live in Rome? And she said she was sorry it was all such a hurry, but that we only had five minutes to decide whether we wanted to do this or not…”
For the young couple from Damascus, who had been on the move for the previous five months since fleeing their home, it was a no-brainer. “We knew straight away this was an incredible opportunity and we were extremely lucky to be asked,” says Nour. “We were overwhelmed to be given the chance. So we said yes, we want to do this.”
The family was told they would have to be ready to leave the camp early the following morning. “Everything happened so quickly – it was a whirlwind,” says Nour. “We were taken to the airport and there we waited for the Pope, who was on his visit to the camp we had come from. And just before we got on the plane, we met him – and then again during the flight he came to talk to us.”
Cared for
Today the family, and the other two families who left Lesbos with the Pope, are living in the Trastevere area of Rome, and being cared for by the humanitarian organisation St Egidio.
When we meet in the St Egidio language school where Nour and Hasan are now learning to speak Italian, Riad is running around happily and eating his favourite biscuits. “He’s flourishing here,” says Nour. “The fact is that now we have a future; and our hope is that we’ll be able to find work here and make our home in this country.”
They’re a middle-class, professional couple: Nour is a microbiologist and Hasan a garden designer. Until the summer of last year they lived in Damascus, but were forced to leave Syria after friends and relatives were killed in the fighting.
They fled first to Turkey and then joined the migrant trail to Europe, attempting several times to make the sea crossing to Greece. One time the boat broke down; another time they were intercepted.
Eventually, on an overcrowded rubber boat on a dark night, they arrived safely in Greece. “It was a relief to be there, but our lives in the camp were very uncertain,” says Nour.
“Like any family with a young child, we wanted to be able to give our son stability. But things were very difficult: we didn’t know how long we would be there, or where we would go next.”
Although several weeks have now passed since their arrival, the couple are still emotional about what Pope Francis’s gesture meant to them. “What he did has changed everything for us,” says Hasan, 31. “We’re so grateful.”
The Pontiff has repeatedly called on the international community to do more to help the migrants, and has called the crisis the worst humanitarian disaster since World War Two. He has stressed that all refugees are God’s children, and during his trip to the Moria camp he told them they were not alone, and urged them: “Do not lose hope”.
Refugees, he has said on several occasions, are not numbers but people with faces, names and stories – and they deserve to be treated as such.
Francis has also said he realises that rescuing just three families from the many thousands crowded into refugee camps is only a drop in the ocean – but what he hoped was that his gesture will change the world’s perception of that ocean.
He also wanted to focus attention on the work of St Egidio, which he has praised in the past: they have pioneered the setting up of ‘humanitarian corridors’ to allow vulnerable migrants and refugees to reach Italy without risking their lives in dangerous sea crossings; the Italian government has agreed to take a thousand people under this arrangement, and the Pope supports St Egidio’s hope that the model will be adopted more widely.
Gesture
“Pope Francis is well aware of the work we are doing and so when he decided he wanted to make this gesture, he knew we were the people to call on to help,” says Rinaldo Piazzoni of St Egidio. “But we were called only three days before the Pope’s trip to Lesbos, so we knew we had to work very fast.”
The three families who made the move to Rome now live there, says Rinaldo, as the Pope’s guests. They have temporary Italian visas and can remain in Italy for five years, after which they can apply to have their visas renewed.
“At the moment we are giving them hospitality and helping them to learn Italian and to integrate into the community here, and we hope in time they’ll find work.
“What we would like to do is show the world that it is possible, that there is a way to help these people.”
The three families brought from Lesbos brought to 20 the number of refugees being housed by the Vatican, a tiny state with just 1000 inhabitants.
If other countries across Europe followed the Pope’s lead, the equivalent intake across the continent would be six million.
Meanwhile the arrival of Nour, Hassan and Riad – plus the other two families, who also have young children – has given a human face to the crisis, and has also made the Pope’s call to all Catholic dioceses to follow the Vatican’s lead and offer hospitality to migrants, all the more urgent.
And for these families, everything is now completely different.
Future
“Our future has really changed,” says Nour. “If the Pope hadn’t acted we’d still be in a camp, facing an uncertain future – like so many of our friends, and our only regret is that because of the speed with which it was all organised, we weren’t able to say goodbye properly.
“We hope we’ll see Francis again, because we’d like to thank him again, and we want him to know how things are going for us.”
The Pontiff, says Rinaldo, keeps in touch with St Egidio about how the refugees are getting on.
“He likes to hear how they’re doing, and in the future I think there will be another opportunity for them to meet,” he says.
In the meantime, the families are doing something they once hardly dared they’d ever be able to do again: they’re planning a future.
A version of this article was published in the July issue of Bible Alive, available in newsagents across Ireland.