The Migrants and Refugees Office of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) has held a three-day conference for pastoral care coordinators to share reports on the response to the plight of migration in their respective Dioceses and to familiarise themselves with South Africa’s White Paper on international migration.

During the April 10-12, pastoral care coordinators from Botswana, eSwatini, and South Africa were also informed of changes in the office for migration, as the SACBC decided to join the Migrants and Refugees Office and the Human Trafficking desk under the same umbrella.

“We met as the office for migrants and refugees and human trafficking to look at the recommendations that were given on the White Paper,” said the SACBC Liaison Bishops for Migrants, Refugees and Human Trafficking Office.

Bishop Joseph Mary Kizito further told the SACBC Communication office that the conference heard reports from some of the catholic organisations that submitted responses to the proposed amendments to South Africa’s Immigration White Paper.

“The government has asked us to give input and today the Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa came to give us those recommendations. And those recommendations have been accepted by the government,” he said.

Bishop Kizito told the SACBC communication office that the Church’s role is “to see how best migrants and refugees could be tackled in those recommendations,” and that the Church “focused on the value of humanity, on the human dignity, not on money, not on politics, but on the human dignity and the church teachings.”

“So, we wanted to see how we can bring the gospel values and theology, the church teachings into the White Paper, which is going to affect a lot of migrants and refugees,” he added.

Participants during the three-day conference on pastoral care for migrants and refugees welcomed Sr Neide Lamperti mscs as the new SACBC coordinator for the Migrants, Refugees, and Human Trafficking Office and expressed gratitude to Sr Maria de Lourdes Lodi Rissini mscs for her work as the SACBC Coordinator for Migrants and Refugees over the past six years.

The April10-12 Conference on migration facilitated by Fr Rampe Hlobo SJ also saw the participation of the former SACBC Liaison Bishop for Migrants and Refugees Archbishop Buti Joseph Tlhagale OMI, Bishop José Luis Gerardo Ponce de León IMC of Manzini Diocese, Anthony Pascal Rebello SVD of Francistown Diocese who together with Bishop Kizito expressed gratitude to the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Saint Charles Borromeo, Scalabrinians for their dynamic commitment in conducting the Pastoral Care of Migration within the Church.