“It’s a tragedy that is added to the countless other tragedies of boat-people who flee from the deprivation of their own country hoping to find Eldorado in the West”, commented Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon on the disaster at sea that caused the death of 18 clandestine immigrants, including two adolescents; their bodies were fished out of the sea to the south of the coasts of Malta by a frigate of the French navy (“La Motte Picquet”) on Friday 1st June; Malta had refused to accept them. “These tragedies in the first place call to account the traffickers who do not hesitate to overload unseaworthy boats”, says Bishop Rey in a statement, but they also call in question “our immigration policies” and “must also arouse our conscience on the need, in a globalized economy, for common commitment to lasting development”. “We must devote ourselves to the growth of the poorer countries – continues the bishop -. And that calls into question our models of development and our lifestyles”. During an interfaith ceremony, the bodies of the drowned were buried in the cemetery of Lagoubran (Toulon) on 7 June. Monsignor Rey will preside over a requiem mass in their memory in the cathedral of Toulon on Monday 11 June.
