Graz-Libya-Mediterranean and the Blackbird in the Backyard

Today, what I was always afraid of happened to me. I met an 18-year-old refugee who has been through Libya, the Mediterranean, sea rescue, all of that.

First of all, my heartfelt thanks to people like our dear friend Claus-Peter Reisch, captain of the Mission Lifeline https://mission-lifeline.de/undand all the other sea rescuers for their work. Because as Christoph Riedl so aptly said at the award ceremony for Claus Peter: "Sea rescuers not only save lives - at great personal risk. No, you also save US. You save the honour of every single person on this European continent." https://blog.diakonie.at/das-duenne-eis-der-zivilisation?fbclid=IwAR1cwW-LIdxFI6E6bomrINfzfwi-zliv_VPS_YrXxeQsvR3mD5JZ02GUHFs

A dear friend calls me and tells me about a boy, already mentions his fate, he was transferred without notice by the BMI from another place to Graz. After all these terrible experiences that happened to him as a child, away from his therapist, his doctors, his familiar surroundings. It's all so easy from behind a desk! "Desk killers".

I was afraid, yes, because hearing all these fates from those directly affected is something you don't just get over. I will never get used to it.

Then he sits in front of me, in the sun. I am touched by the tenderness of his being. We make smaltalk, have to sniff each other. At some point, after an hour, he tells me in very good German that he was in hospital for months and that the nurses and doctors treated him so kindly there. The sun shines on his face and every single, silent tear that flows glistens and makes me speechless. I hold his hand and listen.

And suddenly, without warning of Libya, the death of his parents, the moment when he wanted to take his own life here in Austria because he learned in writing that his sister had also died at the hands of the WarLords gangs.

He also tells me about a boat that broke down at sea, of 120 people, 17 of whom only survived, drifting for hours in the cold water until a private sea rescue ship picked them up. He also tells me that his brother disappeared in the depths of the sea.

And then we have here, in our decadent country, a Federal Chancellor whose biggest problem up to now has been that he has not completed his studies, who wants to explain to me, to you and to you, ladies and gentlemen, that sea rescue is against the law? I will never get used to that either and not a single fibre of my heart will ever accept this, his human "breaking of the law". He speaks of creation, but how sacred is life itself to him?

We will do everything in our power to accompany this boy to a safe, peaceful life. We will do everything in our power to ensure that this boy did not learn German in order to hear these inconceivable atrocities from those in political positions of responsibility, and I will continue to hold talks with people until they learn to understand, in love and responsibility, why we must under no circumstances allow ourselves to be saddled with a responsibility by people who have lost all humanity and warmth. And this only for one reason, to personally stay in power and to feast on the ice-cold, capitalist pots.

And I am firmly convinced that the day will come when the now young chancellor will have to answer, along with his followers. For declaring any basis of humanity, of charity, as weakness, for spreading fear of foreigners instead of working out sincere, humane solutions, and for burdening our children with a responsibility, a guilt, that they will never be able to bear.

And if someone should now take the trouble to write to me that "Europe cannot take "everyone"", I think it would make more sense to ask those responsible for serious help on the ground and for the willingness to allow other people a free life in dignity. Because as long as such conditions prevail in Libya, Afghanistan, wherever, and as long as people have to drown because they are fighting for nothing more than their bare lives, we will never allow NGOs, SEENOTrettung and helpers to be criminalised and it is legitimate to let people drown miserably. Not even if we are attacked for it!

What does this have to do with the blackbird in the backyard? As I work here, she trills her song full of strength after the long, dark time and confirms to me that it will always be spring again, life is always stronger......

We and our willingness to love will win.

#human rights #human dignity #Libya #sea rescue #refugees #charity

Source Picture "Mission Lifeline" HP

Write a comment

Deine E-Mail-Adresse wird nicht veröffentlicht. Erforderliche Felder sind mit * markiert