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“Throughout your history of service, you have carried out a committed work in favor of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers,” wrote WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay. "With the dictatorships in the region persecuting, torturing, and massacring, hundreds of people found refuge and had their lives saved thanks to your testimony and assistance.”
Today there are many who receive guidance every month to walk and improve their conditions as migrants, Pillay added. “From the very beginning, service to refugees has been an important part of the diaconal ministry of the WCC,” he wrote. “For many churches within the ecumenical fellowship today, the search for unity in the church and the world means struggling for truth and justice in the places where they live, engaging in practical acts of solidarity where human dignity and community are at stake, empowering individuals and communities to confront the forces of fragmentation and marginalization.”
Refugees fleeing their home country are in need of protection and assistance in all parts of the world today, Pillay noted. “Lack of legal protection is a basic problem facing refugees who have fled their countries and can no longer count on their own governments to protect them,” he wrote. “The work of advice and support carried out by CAREF’s large interdisciplinary team of social workers, psychologists, lawyers, administrators, and communicators makes a difference in the world.”
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Photo:
Eugenio Albrecht/WCC
