I am Fr. Mauki, a Tanzanian Jesuit from the Eastern Africa Province of the Society of Jesus. I joined the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) team in Malta to consolidate the pastoral accompaniment of JRS for African asylum seekers amid migrants present in Malta. After working for fifteen months with JRS, I have experienced that my having joined the Jesuit Refugee Services was to embark on a faith journey. I have discovered that God is giving me the privilege of assisting the forced migrants and through them experiencing God’s blessing.
Listening to the immigrants’ stories and frustrations in the detention centres has been the intervention I can provide to aid in lightening their hearts’ burdens. As a pastoral team, the only way we can help detainee migrants is to listen to their stories, instill hopes and offer a realistic approach to their problems. Most immigrants tell me that Mass in the detention centre is the only thing that gives them hope. Nobody can afford to take that away. They feel that God will not abandon nor forget them. For many, the Church is a sign of hope in the midst of an alien and hostile environment.
Working with immigrants has strengthened my faith. I have realized that God is present even in life’s most tragic episodes. The immigrants I encounter in detention have a profound faith conviction, a faith that can move mountains. I have seen immigrants who have discovered God as their only help and comfort in exile. I am amazed by their mysterious capacity to believe in God amidst many seemingly unjust situations. Many immigrants speak about Jesus as their only refuge and hope. During my pastoral care in detention, I try to penetrate their world and be with them, even if it is that I be present and silent. A vibrant hope I discover among the immigrants leaves me with a question: Do I bring hope, or do I find it there?
The hope I see among the immigrants is grounded in suffering. It is a grace that gives strength. The challenge for me is to search for and find the seeds of hope, to allow the same hope to continue to grow. In the present situation at the detention centres, pastoral care is a sign of hope and comfort for the people. I have also encountered immigrants who have abandoned their faith. They cannot fathom a loving God who has allowed them to be in detention for eighteen months and being rejected for asylum. The more the immigrants stay in detention, the more difficult it is for them to live out the virtues of their Christian faith.
My role is to search for and find the seeds of hope and to fan the feeble spark into a flame. Immigrants need to see light at the end of the tunnel. Christ offers a larger picture, a meaningful story of suffering, sacrifice and hope within which to situate one’s life. It is for this reason JRS Malta seeks to accompany, serve and defend the rights of asylum seekers and forcibly displaced persons who arrive in Malta. Forced migrants are victims of a violation of basic human rights. JRS Malta cannot ignore issues of protection and human rights violations in the context of forced migration.
Beatus Mauki SJ
Dar Manwel Magri
Mons Carmelo Zammit Street
Msida MSD 2020
Malta