Haití-República Dominicana: 700 trabajadores migrantes haitianos autorizados para regresar a RD

Ouanamithe-Dajabón) 8 de febrero de 2013 — Hoy la ciudad de Ouanaminthe en Haití amanece con una buena noticia: luego de un mes de espera, 700 trabajadores migrantes haitianos que habían quedado varados al norte de la frontera haitiano-dominicana  recibieron ayer sus pasaportes debidamente sellados con visas dominicanas.

Hoy pueden cruzar de manera legal el puente fronterizo, ubicado sobre el río Masacre que separa ambos países, para volver a sus puestos de trabajo en República Dominicana.

Esta decisión que beneficia a esos trabajadores migrantes haitianos es resultado de un acuerdo al que llegaron las autoridades de ambos países, bajo la mediación del director de Solidaridad Fronteriza del Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes (SJM), el Padre jesuita Regino Martínez Breton.

Jesuit Refugee Service

Jesuit Refugee Service/USA (jrsusa.org) is an international Catholic non-governmental organization whose mission is to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons.

As one of the ten geographic regions of the Jesuit Refugee Service, JRS/USA serves as the major refugee outreach arm of U.S. Jesuits and their institutional ministries, mobilizing their response to refugee situations in the U.S. and abroad. Through our advocacy and fund raising efforts, JRS/USA also provides support for the work of JRS throughout the world.

JRS/USA gives help, hope, ear and voice to vulnerable people on the move by being present to and bearing witness to their plight; by relieving their human suffering and restoring hope; by addressing the root causes of their displacement and improving international responses to refugee situations.

In addition, JRS/USA inspires the Ignatian family and others to respond together to the needs of refugees and displaced persons worldwide and forges strong partnerships with like-minded institutions and agencies devoted to the cause of refugees and displaced persons.

JRS works in more than 57 countries worldwide to meet the educational, health, social and other needs of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons. JRS services are made available to refugees and displaced persons regardless of their race, ethnic origin, or religious beliefs.

JRS provides primary and secondary education to approximately 170,000 children, and undertakes advocacy to ensure that all displaced children are provided with a quality education.

Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. jrsusa.org/donate.cfm?LID=201

Ecuador

In Esmeraldas, Ecuador to meet with SJR Ecuador staff and visit with refugees who fled the violence of Colombia for refuge in Ecuador.

Audio: Jesuit Refugee Service takes a global approach to urban refugee issues

(Washington, D.C.) April 27, 2012 - Jesuit Refugee Service has long recognized that serving urban refugee populations is a major challenge. Isolation, restrictive and inadequate government policies and resource constraints all take on increased significance in urban settings. In March of this year, JRS staff from more than 25 countries met in Bangkok for a global consultation meeting to discuss and debate our work with urban refugees. After four days of intense discussion and debate, quality, participation and learning emerged as the guiding principles for JRS work with refugees in urban areas.

Listen to an audio interview with several participants:

Jesuit Refugee Service takes a global approach to urban refugee issues.

 

School educates youth, lifts community in Haiti

A two-year commitment and $225,000 from Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is enabling a new preschool here to provide education, and nutritious meals, to more than 195 students.

A group of Catholic nuns from the Carmelitas de La Caridad de Vedruna order had been providing the service to 60 children, but with the help of JRS they’ve been able to expand the educational program. Classes were once held in the community chapel, but the new school just outside of the town center opened last September. In addition to the classroom block, a latrine was built, and a well for fresh water.

Fond Parisien is located only about one and a half hours from the Haitian capital of Port au Prince, and saw an influx of displaced families from the capital following the January 2010 earthquake.

“When we began thinking about this project we realized there was no preschool; schooling began here at the elementary level. They were forgetting about the most basic education. We saw a gap,” said Sr. Nuria, one of the school founders.

Read the full story on the Jesuit Refugee Service/USA website.

Produced by Jesuit High School students, theatrical drama sheds light on refugee issues

(Washington, D.C.) January 31, 2012 — Jesuit Refugee Service/USA invites groups at high schools, colleges, universities and parishes to hold full theatrical productions or dramatic readings of the play Imago Dei: Journeys of Courage, Hope & Home. The documentary theater piece was written and produced by the students of Jesuit High School of Sacramento for JRS/USA and is now available for production by other interested groups.

The performances are designed to raise awareness of the refugee experience and refugee issues, as well as to invite communities to take action to accompany, serve, and advocate for the rights of refugees around the world.

Jesuit Refugee Service/USA offers two versions of the script: one designed for a full theatrical production of the play Imago Dei: Journeys of Courage, Hope, & Home; and a second adapted for dramatic readings and small group events. Included with scripts are discussion questions designed to guide group dialogue and reflection after the performance/dramatic reading.

JRS/USA hopes the play will allow audiences to “stand in the shoes” of forcibly displaced people and refugees to gain a deeper understanding of the refugee experience.

Pope Benedict XVI prays for “reign of peace” in Colombia

(VATICAN CITY) April 17, 2011 (VIS) – At the end of the celebration of the solemnity of Palm Sunday and the Lord’s Passion, the Holy Father prayed the Angelus with the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square. Before the Marian prayer the Pope addressed those present in various languages, exhorting them above all, “to live the celebration of the Lord’s Passion and Glorification in order to achieve the fullness of what these feasts mean and hold”.

“I am particularly speaking to you, beloved youth” he continued in Spanish, “that you accompany me at the World Youth Day that will take place in Madrid this coming August, with the theme of “Rooted and Built in Christ: Firm in the Faith”.

“Today I am also thinking of Colombia”, he continued, “where the Day of Prayer for victims of violence will be held this coming Good Friday. I am spiritually near to this initiative and earnestly urge Colombians to participate in it, at the same time I ask God for those in this beloved nation who have been appallingly stripped of their lives and their possessions. I renew my urgent call to conversion, repentance, and reconciliation. No more violence in Colombia, that peace there reign!”

Summer Institute on Forced Migration Studies

The Center for Forced Migration Studies (CFMS) at Northwestern University, Chicago, USA is launching its first annual Summer Institute on Forced Migration Studies: “Unsettling Resettlement” from July 10th-17th, 2011.

The Northwestern Center for Forced Migration Studies Summer Institute is a one-week, non-degree earning certificate program. The Summer Institute offers participants an interdisciplinary and comparative understanding of the causes and consequences of forced migration and refugee situations. Focused each year on a key topic of concern in the field of forced migration, the Summer Institute is structured to provide participants expert knowledge and a team based forum where participants actively engage to develop new approaches, policy recommendations and implementation strategies. In commemoration of the 60^th anniversary of the UNHCR and the 1951 Refugee Convention, the topic for 2011 is “Unsettling Resettlement” and seeks to engage participants in examining the current refugee regime concerning resettlement and become part of designing durable solutions.

The summer institute is open to both academics and practitioners seeking to expand their knowledge of contemporary critical elements of forced migration/refugee issues. Participants range from government officials and NGO personnel to university faculty and graduate students.

To register, please visit our website at:
http://www.bcics.northwestern.edu
/programs/migration/summer.html. Application deadlines are April 15th, 2011 for visa applicants and June 1st, 2011 for non-visa applicants.

For more information about CFMS please visit:

http://www.bcics.northwestern.edu/programs/migration/summer.html

 

IACHR URGES UNITED STATES TO SUSPEND DEPORTATIONS TO HAITI

Washington, D.C., February 4, 2011—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urges the United States to suspend deportations to Haiti of persons of Haitian origin who are seriously ill or who have family members in the United States.

Following the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, the U.S. government suspended the deportation of Haitians with criminal convictions or charges. According to information the Commission has received, the government announced on December 9, 2010, that it would lift the moratorium on deportations, and the media reported that deportations of Haitians with criminal records resumed on January 20, 2011.

The deportation of seriously ill persons to Haiti could jeopardize their lives, considering the humanitarian crisis that persists in the country, especially the detention conditions in jails and prisons. According to the information received by the Commission, detention centers in Haiti are overcrowded, and the lack of drinking water and adequate sanitation or toilets could facilitate the transmission of cholera, tuberculosis, and other diseases. The IACHR is also concerned that once they arrive in Haiti, seriously ill persons could remain in detention without access to food, drinking water, and adequate medical treatment. Along these lines, U.S. immigrant advocacy organizations informed the Commission that a person of Haitian origin deported on January 20, 2011, has died in a Haitian prison for reasons that have not yet been officially established, after showing symptoms of cholera. In addition, the Inter-American Commission has received troubling information regarding persons being processed for deportation who have immediate family members, even children, in the United States and who in some cases do not have any family members in Haiti.

DEPORTATIONS TO HAITI SHOULD BE HALTED, SAY USCCB MIGRATION COMMITTEE CHAIR AND CHAIRMAN OF CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES

WASHINGTON — In a joint letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano February 7, Archbishop José H. Gomez, Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Migration, and Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, chairman of the Board of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ international humanitarian agency, expressed opposition to the recent resumption of deportations to the nation of Haiti.

“We are disturbed and dismayed over the January 20, 2010, deportation of 27 Haitians, one of whom is reported to have died from cholera. We ask that you cease these deportations indefinitely,” they wrote.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of DHS announced the resumption of deportations to Haiti December 9th. Since then, about 300 Haitians have been transferred to Louisiana in advance of deportation to the stricken island nation. DHS also announced that it intends to deport 700 Haitians by the end of the year.

Citing the slow recovery from the January 12, 2010 earthquake, the outbreak of cholera, and recent civil unrest, the bishops stated that Haiti is not prepared to receive deportees.

“Now is not the time to resume deportations to Haiti, nor would it be morally or politically appropriate to do so in the foreseeable future,” they wrote. “To continue deportations in the face of such conditions would represent a knowing disregard for the life and dignity of Haitians scheduled for deportation.”

The bishops also argued that resuming deportations could communicate the wrong message to the Haitian people, who are depending upon the United States for long-term support in their effort to recover from the earthquake.

“Moreover, [the resumption of deportations] would signal to a nation struggling to recover from natural disaster that the United States is retreating from its commitment to help Haiti return to health, ” they stated.

The bishops outlined several steps DHS should take to assist Haiti, including a re-designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haiti so that Haitians who arrived after the earthquake could qualify; the extension of humanitarian parole to family members of Haitians brought to the United States for medical care; and the implementation of a family parole program for 55,000 Haitians with approved family petitions into the United States as they wait for their priority dates to become current.

The bishops argued that the adoption of these measures would ensure the continued flow of remittances to the country and would “send an important signal to the Haitian people that the United States remains committed to their long-term welfare.”

The letter concluded with a special appeal to the DHS Secretary.

“Madam Secretary, your designation of TPS for Haiti immediately after the January 12, 2010, earthquake was an important and well-received humanitarian action. We urge you not to negate that positive action with a resumption of deportations at this time.”

Full text of the letter follows.