ROMA (ITALPRESS) – “Children are the most vulnerable in world migration flows. Every year, millions of children and adolescents are forced to abandon their land because of wars, poverty, violence, environmental disasters and other tragedies and unfortunately their number continues to increase. The economic, political and military responsibilities of this disaster are immanent. Suffering is not exhausted in moving: there are very young people who have lost parents, brothers, sisters and friends and are witnesses of unspeakable violence. Others, separated for long periods by their relatives, try to reconnect to them, while living in the meantime the anguish of remoteness. There are then minors facing the journey along with parents, exposed however to extreme and traumatic conditions. Finally, we cannot forget the tragic condition of those who are separated from their parents because of repatriation.” Thus Pope Leo XIV in the message for the 112th Day of Migrants and Refugees. “To this already dramatic scenario – he adds – are added other tragedies: the dead along the migration routes, trafficking and exploitation, recruitment for the use of minors in armed conflicts, sexual violence, forced marriages and atrocities suffered or seen during the journey. In too many ways their dignity is trampled.” For the Holy Father “even one of these children calls us to open our eyes and hearts to the deep listening of history, to the fears and dreams of each of them, overcoming that detachment that reduces the human being to a statistical data that does not directly involve us. It is an invitation to recognize the child in his dignity, even before his condition of ‘migrantes, and to protect its fundamental rights. Even one of these children, in the context of civil institutions, calls us to reaffirm the principle of the superior interest of the minor. Public and private institutions are required to focus the protection and dignity of each child and teenager. This involves the adoption of effective legal instruments of protection, promoting family reunions and avoiding traumas of separation. A change of perspective is urgent: it is necessary to move the axis of the debate from the mere management of flows to the full and immediate protection of human rights “, concludes Leo XIV.
-Photo: Ipa Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
