Friendly faces when they’re most needed

In a world where politics polarises people, where contrary opinions can ruin friendships, where ideological differences can result in being ostracised, it’s easy to forget that we’re all human. We all have feelings. We all bleed red.

Whether you’re in favour of the new fence going up between Hungary and Serbia or whether you’re against it doesn’t take from the fact that thousands of those it’s designed to keep out are already here. And more are coming by the day.

Where are the churches? Those pastoral institutions that purport to have the care of humanity at their core? Surely it can’t be true that they are sitting idly by and doing nothing? Admittedly the problem is so huge that it’s difficult to know where to start, but thankfully there are groups of motivated individuals out there who are banding together to make a difference.

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People like Zsuzsa and Patrick at the Caledonia Pub on Moszár utca who have offered their pub as a drop-off / pick-up point for volunteers going to meet the trains of incoming migrants arriving from the border towns. They’re in need of items like baby food, personal hygiene products, medicine, and food. They have cold storage facilities for fresh fruit and sandwiches and a network of distributors. Volunteers can meet there to plan and discuss who is doing what and what needs to be done next. Check out their Facebook page Caledonia Social Bite for details.

Another group, Migration AID, has set up sub-groups to man each of the main stations so that those arriving see some friendly faces doing what they can to help. Volunteers give juice to the kids, toiletries to the parents. Many need plasters for their blisters, cream for their sunburn, and lots and lots of water. Some need medical assistance, or help finding missing family members. And through their social media networks, these volunteers put out the word and find someone who can help.

I can’t begin to imagine what it might be like to have walked for hundreds of miles, for weeks on end, from Iraq, Syria and even Somalia, in search of a better life, leaving everything I own behind me, and then to finally arrive and not see a friendly face. In some circumstances, a plaster and a bottle of water must seem like manna from heaven.

Reports say that about 1000 people cross the Hungarian border every day. Those who don’t slip through unbeknownst to the border officials are fingerprinted as they request asylum. They’re given entry papers and 48 hours to make it to their reception centre. If they don’t, and they’re caught with expired papers, they face jail. When they disembark in Budapest, the station staff shepherd them outside. So they head to the parks, where the police come and move them on. They’re left to roam the streets, waiting for their next train out. There’s no coordination, no infrastructure, no system in place to cope.

But the people have rallied. Hundreds of volunteers are readily giving up their time to help in a situation that is getting more nightmarish by the day. They accept the fact that for whatever reason these people are here and they need help. Each one has a story to tell, stories which many of us, accustomed to a life of relative plenty might find it difficult to empathise with.

And while it is important to debate the politics of it all, to find a policy solution that will stem the tide, we would do well to imagine ourselves in their shoes and think of how we’d like to be treated if, tomorrow, we found ourselves homeless, blistered, and hungry in a strange country, knowing that going home wasn’t an option.

First published in the Budapest Times 17 July 2015

11 Responses

  1. Mary, a timely piece about a situation that is only truly a “problem” for those Politicians and their supporters who want to make it so. People who are incapable of the thought and act of, “treat others as you wish to be treated”. As you say , when we bleed, we all bleed red; even Mr Orban and the Hungarian Nazis around Pec.
    I do wonder where the Church is in all this ? supporting as I believe it widely does, the Orban Government. If that’s true, it’s hardly the Churches finest hour. I wonder what Franciscan based thoughts, Pope Francis has on the situation .

  2. Sorry, I also wonder, how many of those dedicated people, meeting trains, providing a smile and a hug, plus as many of the bare necessities of life that they can, would claim to be fully committed Christians. I’d lay odds on, that the person we met near the marzipan museum and the group he belongs to, are in the thick of the welcome and aid effort ?

    1. Oh – don’t know – must ask him Clive… I would imagine yes, but will check. As for the Christian label… like any labels of worth these days, there are so many fakes…

  3. How come we hear of no immigration problem in, say, Saudi Arabia? A wealthy country, much closer to home in many cases, when a majority of these arrivals in Europe are Moslems?

    1. Perhaps because those countries continue to keep foreigners separated from the locals… no hope at all of integrating…

      1. Who’s talking about integrating? These immigrants merely want what’s going – safety and economic advantage. They’re not interested in us, only in what they intend us to do for them.

  4. Actually, Mary, in the absence of statistics (you may be better informed) I’m very much afraid so. A large majority, at least. Otherwise they would come by conventional means rather than render themselves destitute and helpless in the hope of being rescued. One can easily sympathise with the dreadful situations that some at least have faced back home, but to extend welcome to this reverse colonisation is going too far.

    1. Conventional means are all well and good if there’s an embassy where you can apply for a visa… wonder how many of those there are in operation in places like Syria or Afghanistan? Seems like Hungary’s acceptance rate of ‘official refugees’ is very low – single digits. Could this be karmic? I don’t know what the solution is Bernard – it’s a mad world and getting madder by the minute

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