MANILA, Philippines – “I could just imagine the pain, the horror, of living every day, waking up with that thought: Is my wife still alive? Will I be able to see my son again?”

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, president of Caritas Internationalis, said this is the “upsetting” situation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, home to more than a million Syrians who have fled their war-torn country.

Tagle recently visited Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Vatican Radio reported on Tuesday, March 1. He also visited abused overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) there. 

Caritas Internationalis, which Tagle has headed since May 2015, is the world’s biggest network of Catholic charities.

Referring to the plight of refugees, Tagle said on Vatican Radio, “It upsets you because you know this is not what life, human life, should be.”

“And it upsets you all the more,” the cardinal said, “because some of these people probably don’t understand: ‘Why are there conflicts?’ And they are the ones who are really bearing the consequences of the conflicts created by people, by others, especially those who are in power.”

OFW unpaid and later fired

During his visit to Lebanon, the Filipino archbishop also visited a “safehouse” for abused OFWs. He saw more than 30 women in that safehouse in Lebanon.

Having checked their situation, he described the plight of OFWs there as “rather serious.”

A female OFW, for instance, had not received her monthly salary for more than a year. When she asked her employer for her salary, her employer “just opened the door and said, ‘You’re fired. You may leave my house.’”

He also said some of the abused workers still “bear the physical marks of maltreatment.”

The problem is, many of the victims “don’t have the courage to come out in the open and report the situation” in their places of work. “And how many cases, not just in Lebanon but in other parts of the world, are not reported?”

Tagle then made an appeal “not just as an individual person” or an official of the Catholic Church, “but especially in the name of the lost, the confused refugees, the migrants, especially from Syria and Iraq.”

The president of Caritas Internationalis said: “We are asking everyone, especially the leaders of countries and of international organizations, let us sincerely and urgently settle this issue of conflict, battles, and wars. Let us go to the roots of all these.”

“And with humility and with human consciences,” Tagle said, “let us set aside greed and self-interest for the sake of the suffering.” – Rappler.com