Showing posts with label Detention. Show all posts
Advent, Christmas 2014
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| Photo by lednichenkoolga from foter.com |
Sister Marguerite, a
volunteer with JRS, reflects on joy and suffering at this special time of
Christmas.
Today
is Gaudete Sunday, a day of rejoicing,
of joy as we await the birth of
Jesus. So many thoughts run through my mind as I write. Pope Francis’ Apostolic
Encyclical, ‘Evangelli Gaudium’, the Joy
of the Gospel, the Joy of the Good News, calls me and challenges us to
be people of joy. But how can there
be joy when there is so much suffering
and conflict in our beautiful but broken world right now? One has only to
turn on the TV or read the newspapers about Syria ,
Iraq
Paradox
of suffering suffused with joy, of joy embracing suffering. It
is just over two years now since I started volunteering with the Jesuit Refugee
Service. Only yesterday the person I had been visiting at the detention center was
deported, the pain of walking with
him in his suffering. But I need to
balance it with the wonderful surprise of a phone call last week from another
who was given permission to stay, her refugee status granted and inviting her
home for a meal to celebrate and share in her joy. Another courageous young man with astounding faith is still
in a detention centre. Paradoxically, instead of draining my energy, visiting
him gives me life. A terrific life example of one suffering intensely but with such faith and courage that brings a
deep joy in embracing his cross.
They,
each one, edify and challenge me and give me much, much more than what I am or
try to do for them. And yet, so many are still smiling amidst their suffering,
some for long years and wow! Their faith and courage are amazing. I would
probably have crumbled if I were in their shoes. ‘I see better now and my eyes hurt.’ (Audre Lorde). To keep believing
that God has become human, He knows, He understands and He is in everything,
both our joys and our sufferings. To learn again the great
paradox that the deeper the pain carved,
the more radiant the joy. In today’s
reading at Mass, the prophet Isaiah is also speaking to me and all of us, ‘He
has sent me to bring good news to the
poor, to bind up hearts that are broken…I
exult for joy in the Lord.’ Meister
Eckhart said, ‘What good is it to me for our Creator to give birth to His Son,
if I do not also give birth to Him in my place, my time, my culture?’
As
Christians prepare to mark Christ’s birth we can find ways to be more aware of
God’s presence in our world and our own lives right here and now! May God grant
us the grace to learn to be more aware of Her/His incarnate presence in
everyone and every experience, in joy and
in suffering. Let us pray earnestly
for peace which our world is in such need of today. May the Prince of Peace
give me, you, all people, peace in our hearts and homes, which will flow out to
our communities and the whole world. A Peace which only God can give, peace in
times of joy and especially in times of suffering. Joy to the world, the Prince
of Peace has come!
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Vigil in Honour of Deaths in Detention
‘Alexandra’ from JRS-UK took part in
a vigil organised to honour the lives of asylum seekers who lost their lives
whilst in detention in the UK.
She describes why she was pleased to go along to support others.
I went to the
vigil to support everyone who has to seek asylum in the UK and everyone
in general who are in detention. For me, because I can’t go to the detention
centre to support them, I went to show that I am supporting them. I hope that
they close the detention because there is no right to hold people like this.
To show
everyone that we are together in this campaign, we did a circle, we had lights
and candles to remember those people who were in detention and lost their
lives. There were 5 people in the last 2 years who died.
I remember
the speech of the lady who told when she arrived in the UK there was
detention only of a few people, now there are many more. Someone that day also gave a testimony about
how he went through detention. If this person had not been in detention he
could have had a college degree by now. People explained their experience. One
shared how he was treated, the stress of being in detention, people telling him
to go back to his country and he did not know what would happen. And then there
was the MP who reminded us that we can make a difference through campaigning
and that, for example, ending children in detention. So yes, let’s end
indefinite detention!
From JRS we
were five taking part. In the audience I noticed around there was a good mix of
people: refugees, organisations, vicar from the church, Congo Support Group
came, local people from Hackney, volunteers from Citizens UK, people filming, the
Bishop from London Churches Refugee Group.
I felt very
good on the evening because there are some people who recognise that we are
first of all human beings, that there is no need for detention. It is stressful
to be an asylum seeker first of all, it is stressful to come to the UK, then
to find yourself again in detention… It is good that there are people who are
standing up to say that we should stop it. There are lots of people, many
voices, so we are a force for change. When I saw the flyer, I was excited to
hear that there is campaign to close detention, to put less people in stress.
But I also
feel angry. To keep someone in detention, when they are closed somewhere, they
suffer inside. When they are locked up, they are not doing the basic things they
are used to. They think a lot, they remember the trauma they went through back
home. It is not helping. They are isolated. At least at the Day Centre I can
come, I can chat to friends. In detention there is no change – it’s monotone.
The vigil was organised by Citizens UK, London
Churches Refugee Network, Detention Action and Detention Forum.
More information about the campaign
to end indefinite detention:
www.detentionaction.org.uk/timelimit
www.detentionaction.org.uk/timelimit
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Detention
Today is Friday and I am at a loose end. There’s no letter for me to write today as ‘my’ detainee has disappeared and this time it isn’t simply a transfer between detention centres. Once again I have been touched by the kindness of one of the detention centre staff who bothered to return my last letter. It is because of this that we know he really has been sent back to his country, and I would rather know what has happened to him than feel he has been lost somewhere in the system. So it’s Friday and there’s an empty space in my day; time to reflect a little more on befriending.His deportation has set me thinking about my own family. I wonder just how many of us have refugees, economic migrants asylum seekers in our own family histories? My first known ancestor here in Norfolk was a refugee. He came from the Low Countries in part of what is today Belgium, but as a Protestant in a Catholic country sought asylum in England. His memorial stone in a Norwich city church simply bears his name and the fact that he was born ‘beyond the seas in 1581’. These Dutch and French speaking incomers formed a strong community in the city and through their skills in horticulture and weaving, brought it great wealth. (Note for the football minded - it was the Dutch ‘Strangers’ who first brought canaries to this country - hence the popular name of the Norwich Football Club.)
Immigrants from the Low Countries to Norfolk are known as the Strangers and it is this word that takes me straight to the Gospel; ‘I was a stranger and you took me in.’* My detainee has gone to Africa to a life I cannot imagine. Just as he was a stranger here, he will after these years away from his country and people be a stranger now in his own home land. I am thankful that my ancestor was made welcome here in England - else where would I be now!? Thankful too that I have had the opportunity via JRS to exchange letters with a stranger here in England. I sincerely hope and pray that my penfriend is taken in and made welcome, given food, shelter and especially safety wherever he is now.
* Matthew 25:35
Pat W
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