ISLAM-CHRISTIAN DIALOGUE

205 CHASING TAILS 14-7-2019 XV SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME C I think it would be useful to awaken public consciousness on a forgotten issue: the consequences of sanctions against Syria. Thank you and have a good Sunday. Migrations are wreaking havoc on unpre- pared populations, and are being exploi- ted for political purposes. Regardless of the available resources of a country or a continent, accepting migrants indiscrimi- nately could disrupt social peace. In fact, it is essential to able to prepare a path of integration and control of the path of re- ception. Young people who want to move away from their families in general do not do so willingly if not driven by wars, the instability of the established order, lack of opportunities for growth, work, the possi- bility of eating adequately, and not least flattered by the way of life of the West presented by the media, which remains the preferred destination and not towards the rich Islamic countries that also need labour. Wars are one of the main causes of people's flight to more peaceful place. For forty years the Middle East has been torn apart by fratricidal wars: Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, followed by the invasion of Iraq and then the bloody revolution in Syria. These events are imbued with reli- gious hatred that continues, among other things, to decimate the Christian presence as an integral part of the population. The main Western countries, but not only that, are no stranger to these upheavals that cause the desperate flight of populations to neighbouring countries and the West. The continual imposition of sanctions by the European Union of the ban on the supply of medicines and other supplies indispensable for survival creates further useless violence on the poorest fringes of the battered countries and is a further cause to flee towards a West unprepared to welcome them. It is like chasing tails.