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Pastoral Care of Afro-Asian
Migrants (PCAAM)
Probably the most active assistance and relief
network for migrant workers is that provided under the umbrella of the Pastoral
Care of Afro-Asian Migrants (PCAAM). The PCAAM, an institution of the Catholic
church, coordinates the independent, yet often parallel, activities of three
bodies: the Caritas Migrant Center, the Afro-Asian Migrant Center, and
Laksehta. The PCAAM is officially directed by Father Paul Bassim, however its
activities are mostly carried out and supervised by its coordinator, Father
Martin McDermott, a Jesuit priest at Université St. Joseph in Beirut.
The PCAAM is largely concerned with the fate
of migrants from those non-Arab African and Asian countries with Christian
communities. This does not mean that the efforts of the organizations whose
tasks it coordinates are directed solely at Christians. Quite the contrary.
Rather, it is outside the scope, or means, of the PCAAM to deal with the
hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim migrant workers from Arab countries, who
have informal networks of their own. The PCAAM does deal with Sudanese
refugees, however, many of whom are Christians from the south of
Sudan.
The establishment of the PCAAM came after more
than a decade of involvement by Catholic priests and nuns in assisting migrant
workers. This was demonstrated, as of the early 1980s, by priests' saying mass
in English for those migrant workers who spoke the language. After several
efforts to give a legal status to a body assisting migrant workers, in 1997 the
Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops established a sub-committee of the
Episcopal Commission for Missionary Activity: The sub-committee was the PCAAM.
The role of PCAAM is to provide, in Martin
McDermott's words, "pastoral care". This he defines, however, as "not only
religious assistance, but also social and juridical assistance." Among its
tasks are maintaining a link between migrant workers and their families back
home, and maintaining such a link with the Church so that the migrants' "stay
in Lebanon can become a period of spiritual contentment and instruction." This
means, in addition, providing religious orientation and catechism.
The pronounced religious slant of the
assistance provided by the PCAAM is, nevertheless, accompanied by more
practical concerns: the provision of juridical assistance to migrants who have
been abused or who are in trouble. In 1998, the PCAAM employed seven lawyers -
six Christians and one Muslim - to help provide legal assistance. The lawyers
generally work for free. The organizations under the PCAAM umbrella also
organize Sunday outings and oversee radio broadcasts in several African and
Asian languages.
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Caritas Migrant
Center
The Caritas Migrant Center, established by the
secretary-general of the Caritas Middle East-North Africa region, Johan Garde,
is located in Zalqa, in Beirut's eastern suburbs. The center carries out a
number of activities to help migrant workers solve the many problems they face
in Lebanon. Caritas helps migrants return home, if it is able to do so, even at
times helping pay for the ticket. If migrants are sick, the center will
sometimes see to it that the Caritas organization in their own country takes
care of them upon their return. Caritas will also help settle migrant workers
in a third country, if they have obtained papers to enter the country, but have
no funds to reach there.
The center also has a prison aid program to
take care of migrants who have been detained. Often such migrants are caught
with invalid working documents, or none at all, and spend time in detention
until they are deported. As noted in Chapter Two, it is often difficult for
migrant workers to leave Lebanon, whether because they are in the country
illegally or because their travel documents have been confiscated by their
employers. The confiscation of identity documents often imposes a prohibitive
cost on migrant workers, as the Lebanese authorities impose a high fee upon the
issuing of replacement papers. Unlike the other organizations under the PCAAM
umbrella, however, the Caritas Migrant Center does not lodge migrant workers.
Three other of the center's tasks are, first,
to offer free medication to impoverished migrant workers, dispensed through
several mobile clinics. Second, to deal with insurance companies, so that they
will provide policies to those workers under Caritas' care. And third, to
provide advice and training in the setting up of small businesses or in
handicrafts.
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The Afro-Asian Migrant
Center (AAMC)
- St Vincent
The Afro-Asian Migrant Center (AAMC), known
also as St. Vincent, is run by Sister Amelia, a Filipino nun of the Daughters
of Charity order who arrived in Lebanon in 1987. The center is located in an
annex of what is known as the 'Azariyya convent in Ashrafiyyeh. Sister Amelia,
though she operates under the general umbrella of the PCAAM, keeps her order
informed of what she is doing. As she sees it, the AAMC is part of the wider
efforts of her religious community, although she is the one who established the
center. The AAMC is open to all non-Arab Afro-Asians, though the fact that
Sister Amelia is from the Philippines tends to make it more attractive to
Filipinos.
The AAMC conducts a variety of activities,
religious and otherwise, for Afro-Asian migrants. Among its religious
activities is providing religious instruction and guidance to migrants. Indeed,
Sister Amelia noted that her first priority is spiritual assistance. This she
does, partly, through her presentation of a 25-minute program in Tagalog on the
Voice of Charity radio station on Saturday evenings. One of the features of the
program is a reading of the next day's gospel, though the program also
dispenses advice, publicizes forthcoming activities, and mentions birthdays.
Its main objective appears to be to bind the migrant worker community together,
particularly domestic workers, on the implicit assumption that a united migrant
community is less vulnerable to exploitation. As Sister Amelia remarked, one of
her goals in the radio program is to "encourage those who are imprisoned in
their homes".
The AAMC also conducts a variety of
non-religious activities. These include, like the Caritas Migrant Center,
assisting prisoners and helping migrant workers in need of legal aid. The
number of migrants in prison varies widely: at times, almost no one may be in
prison, at others a few hundred may be. For example, according to one estimate
in April 2000, some 200-300 non-Arab Afro-Asian females were incarcerated.One
should recall that a vast majority of non-Arab Afro-Asians - perhaps 95% - are
females. Sister Amelia and her collaborators visit detention centers, provide
detained migrants with food, assistance, and an opportunity to alert someone as
to their fate. This is essential, since detained migrants without legal
representation may languish for long periods in jail while awaiting that that
their fate be determined.
The PCAAM network receives legal assistance
from volunteer lawyers. Sister Amelia noted that when a migrant worker comes to
the AAMC for legal help, she refers the matter to Father Martin McDermott, who
contacts the lawyers with whom the PCAAM works. As noted earlier, most of these
work for free. Similarly, there are several doctors who treat Afro-Asian
migrant workers for free.
The AAMC also lodges runaway migrants, who for
one reason or another have escaped from their places of employment. While safe
houses are run by the AAMC, they do no belong to the center, thereby
introducing an element of uncertainty into the sheltering process. Sister
Amelia would prefer, if funding is made available, to purchase an apartment to
house runaways.
An associated activity, provided thanks to the AAMC's
links with the Daughters of Charity, is the education of the children of
migrant workers. Twelve children of migrant workers attend the order's schools
at St. Vincent and at Chamoun. The AAMC hosts some of them on Sundays so that
they can watch films and play. Education of the children of migrant workers is
a key, though understated, feature of the migrant presence in Lebanon. There
are no regulations imposing the mandatory education of the children of
migrants.
The AAMC also conducts other activities. It
publishes, with the assistance of migrant workers, a quarterly newsletter
entitled Solidarity. The first issue was published in April 2000, and the
publication acts as an informal link between the different non-Arab Afro-Asian
communities. The AAMC also organizes sports and other types of events. Every
Sunday evening, a film is projected at the center, and the modest entry fee is
used to purchase food for detained migrants. This is a necessary measure in
that detention facilities, because they are not legally mandated, do not have
an adequate infrastructure to feed those detained. Migrants are also allowed to
use the AAMC premises to organize parties or other social activities, where
they can cook their own food.
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Laksehta
The third body under the PCAAM umbrella is
Laksehta, which means 'haven of Sri Lanka' in Sinhalese. In 1988, during the
Lebanese war, a Lebanese Capuchin priest, Father Salim Rizkallah, traveled to
Sri Lanka to learn the language. There he was given over 800 dossiers of Sri
Lankans working in Lebanon, of whom nothing had been heard due to the
escalating fighting between Lebanese factions.
Upon his return, Father Salim did three things
to assist migrant workers, most of them female domestics: First, he started a
radio program on the Voice of Charity station in Sinhalese and Tamil. Second,
he set up a post office box to receive mail from Sri Lanka. In those days,
there was irregular mail service between Lebanon and the rest of the world.
Father Salim would announce, on his radio program, the names of those who had
received mail and where they could pick it up. And third, he performed a
variety of religious services for non-Arab Afro-Asians, including weddings,
baptisms, and burials.
Though he was eventually helped by a Sri
Lankan priest, Father Salim and his colleague decided that a nun would be
preferable to deal with the large numbers of women workers. They, therefore,
brought over a Sri Lankan nun from the Bon Pasteur order, Sister Angela, and
their joint efforts blossomed into Laksehta, which is based in Dora, in an
eastern suburb of Beirut.
Laksehta, like the Caritas Migrant Center and
AAMC, deals with a wide variety of migrant problems, and caters to all non-Arab
Afro-Asians. One of its activities is to visit detained migrants twice weekly,
and in 1999 the organization prepared 750 food packages for those incarcerated,
including non-migrants.
Laksehta also provides a refuge for women who
have run away from their places of employment. However, the halfway house is
only a temporary lodging while Father Salim attempts to find jobs for the
women. At times, he tries to mediate between the women and their employers,
either to regain their confiscated papers or to bring about a reconciliation.
The former effort may, at times, involve payments to employers, and
confiscation of a domestic worker's documents can become quite lucrative. If
needed, Father Salim also places the women in hospitals or, even, asylums.
Laksehta has also bought twenty burial vaults
at the Roman Catholic cemetery in Fanar to place the remains of migrant workers
who died in Lebanon. These may be Catholics or non-Catholics. The organization
also helps to repatriate bodies, in conjunction with the Sri Lankan embassy,
though Father Salim noted that he often encourages families back home to avoid
the great expense of repatriation. Rather, he recommends that they save their
money, or take what the insurance company will pay out. At the end of a year,
the remains are removed from the vault and buried in a collective site after
being placed in an identifiable bag. This allows relatives to repatriate the
remains at a later date.
Like the other organizations under the PCAAM
umbrella, Laksehta benefits from the informal network of lawyers and doctors
helping Father Martin McDermott in his efforts on behalf of migrant workers.
However, their numbers are limited and their compensation virtually
nil.
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The Middle-East Council
of Churches (MECC)
The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)
deals in a more marginal way with migrant workers, through its dealings with
refugees. The MECC is the Lebanese representative of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It counsels refugees and provides them with
assistance. Legally, a refugee cannot work in Lebanon, yet only a portion of
refugees are accepted formally as such by the UNHCR. Of the 3,500 Sudanese in
Lebanon, for example, only 500 are recognized as refugees. This means that a
considerable number, including the refugees among them, must fend for
themselves by working illegally. Hence the MECC's efforts must be considered as
part of a wider network of assistance to migrant workers, even if the refugees
are not formally recognized as such. The MECC officially denies helping
refugees find employment, since that is contrary to Lebanese
law.
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The Lebanese NGO
Forum
The Lebanese NGO Forum is also one of the
organizations involved in helping migrant workers. However, it does not do so
on the ground, so to speak, leaving that to such organizations as Caritas,
AAMC, Laksehta, and others. Rather, the Forum plays different roles:
¨ First, it loosely coordinates the
activities of other NGOs concerned with assistance to prisoners, whether these
are migrant workers, women, or children. This it does in the context of a
Comité d'Action et de Coordination pour les Prisonniers (CAP).
¨ Second, the Forum disseminates
information on vulnerable groups, including migrant workers, through training
seminars, conferences in collaboration with the UNHCR, reports, and an
information newsletter (Ebb and Flow, in English, French and Arabic). The
Migrant Workers in Lebanon, by Michael Young, is published by the LNF. (link to
button Reports and Studies)
¨ Third, the Forum promotes legal aid to
migrants in collaboration with the Beirut Bar Association.
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