Five years and more, praying at the Home Office door

Despite heavy rain, around 25 people attended the October memorial vigil for those who have died trying to reach a place of safety in Europe and the UK. The vigil has been held for over 10 years, in fact, but it restarted after COVID as a regular monthly event, and this month marks the beginning of its fifth year.

This week we stood in a covered walkway shivering, dripping and praying a shortened version of our usual service. We ask ourselves how often it should continue, since there is no apparent improvement in the policies of our own and EU governments to show more compassion to those fleeing countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo.

s our prayer in vain? Is God not listening? Is there something else that could be tried instead? Are we sinking into a sort of defeatism? These are some of the doubts that can creep in when you have been there so many times before. The boats, as we see, are fuller than ever, the tragedies continue to increase. We heard this week, for instance, that last year (we read the certified incidents a year in arrears)

'Maryam Bahez, a baby 40 days old from Iraqi Kurdistan, drowned in the English Channel off Wissant, France; she slipped from her father's arms when an overcrowded dinghy burst. 67 survived'.
and also

A boy of three died of unknown causes, his remains found by fishermen on a rubber dinghy bound for Sardinia.
and closer to home,

Theophile Laiviotis, a man of 26, died while awaiting deportation in Brook House UK.

These are tragedies caused by human policies, not natural accidents. We pray for the strength to continue to speak out about them, to protest them.

Last Sunday's reading about the widow who pesters the unjust judge (Luke 18) strikes a chord. To our questions along the lines of 'is it all worth it?', Christ asks US a question: 'When the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on the earth?'

So we keep on showing up for an hour a month outside the Home Office, not because we know best, but praying for an end to this misery, believing that at some point, in God's time, there will be justice for those who take to the boats and lorries. looking for safe havens.

The Vigil takes place on the third Monday of each month. For further details contact Londoncatholicworker@yahoo.co.uk , barbarakentish11@gmail.com or Johannesmaertens@hotmail.com