About Us: Jesuit Refugee Service

The mission of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is to accompany, serve and advocate for the rights of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons, witnessing to God’s presence in vulnerable and often forgotten people driven from their homes by conflict, natural disaster, economic injustice, or violation of their human rights.

JRS/USA is one of 10 geographic regions of Jesuit Refugee Service, an international Catholic organization sponsored by the Society of Jesus.

In coordination with the JRS International Office in Rome, JRS/USA provides advocacy, financial and human resources for JRS regions throughout the world.

Learn more jrsusa.org

Europe: states violate the basic rights of migrants

Research on migrants identified destitute as a consequence of exclusionary state policies

(Brussels) March 28, 2011 – Throughout Europe thousands of migrants are deprived access to education, healthcare, housing and social welfare services, and employment opportunities. Tuesday Jesuit Refugee Service will present first-hand evidence of how government policies directly contribute to the destitution of migrants on the continent.

The briefing, held at Les Ateliers des Tanneurs, Brussels at 09:10, will feature three key speakers:

· Mr Simon Tesfamichael, an Eritrean refugee, will speak about his experiences of destitution in Italy.

· Ms Louise Zanré, JRS UK director, will describe how state policies force migrants into destitution, based on her daily contact with destitute migrants in London.

· Mr Stefan Kessler, JRS Europe senior policy and advocacy officer, will make policy recommendations based on the 2010 report, Living in Limbo, on migrant destitution in 13 European countries.

“The current migrant crisis in Lampedusa is an indicator of Europe’s larger inability to uphold the most basic rights of migrants. If EU states are unable to protect migrant’s rights in the short term, they risk fostering destitution in the long run. Destitution is a downward spiral of human indignity. Once migrants become stuck, it’s difficult and expensive to get them out of this situation”, says Mr Kessler.

Judge strikes down parts of Arizona’s SB 1070

(Washington, D.C.) July 28, 2010 – Judge Susan Bolton of the U.S. District Court for Arizona today issued an injunction preventing the most egregious sections of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law – SB 1070 – from going into effect tomorrow. The order covers the sections criminalizing immigrants for failing to carry documents with them at all times and requiring police to ask anyone for papers proving citizenship or legal status during traffic stops or housing inspections if they had a “reasonable suspicion” the person was undocumented.

“At the Kino Border Initiative’s Center for Deported Migrants in Nogales, Sonora, we are seeing increasing numbers of repatriated migrants each day. Hundreds of people come to us with blistered feet and with broken spirits,” said Fr. Sean Carroll, S.J., of the Kino Border Initiative.

Leahy, Levin co-sponsor Refugee Protection Action of 2010

WASHINGTON (Monday, March 15, 2010) – Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Monday introduced legislation to strengthen the country’s commitment to protecting refugees fleeing persecution or torture.  The Refugee Protection Action of 2010 will help to improve protections for refugees and asylum seekers with bona fide claims.  The legislation is cosponsored by Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

The introduction of the Refugee Protection Act also commemorates the 30th anniversary of the historic Refugee Act of 1980, which was enacted to fulfill the country’s obligations under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.  The Leahy-authored legislation introduced Monday addresses shortfalls in current law that place unnecessary and harmful barriers before refugees with legitimate asylum claims, making it more difficult for them to find safe harbor in the United States.

“It is time to renew America’s commitment to the Refugee Convention, and to bring our law back into compliance with the Convention’s promise of protection,” said Leahy.

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Minnesota benefits from economic impact of immigrants

Immigrants will play a key role in Minnesota’s economic future, according to a report released by the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute and the Minnesota Business Immigration Coalition.

“The biggest mistake that people make when they try to evaluate the ‘costs’ of immigration is to look at short-term costs, without taking into consideration the long-term benefits that accrue when immigrants enter the labor force,” says Professor Katherine Fennelly, the lead researcher for the study.

Learn more and read the report here.

Vatican hosts conference on migrants and refugees

The Holy See has announced that the 6th World Congress for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees will be held in the Vatican from November 9 to 12. The event has as its theme: “A pastoral response to the phenomenon of migration in the era of globalization. Five years after the Instruction Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi.”

A press conference announcing the conference was attended by Archbishops Antonio Maria Veglio and Agostino Marchetto, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, and by Msgr. Novatus Rugambwa, under secretary of the same council.

“Globalization,” said Archbishop Veglio, “has created a new labor market and, consequently, forced many to emigrate, also in order to flee from poverty, misery, natural catastrophes and local and international conflicts, as well as from political or religious persecution. This has opened markets to international intervention, but it has not torn down the walls of national boundaries to allow the free circulation of people, even with due respect for the sovereignty of States and their constitutional charters, safeguarding legality and security.”

Forced migrants in Europe: living in limbo

On the occasion of the World Food Day (Oct. 16) and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (Oct. 17), Jesuit Refugee Service Europe draws atten­tion to the desperate situation of destitute forced migrants in Europe. All over the European Union we accompany migrants who for good reasons cannot return to coun­tries of origin but are completely excluded from social services in the countries where they are living.

“These persons are living in limbo, in an impasse, without any perspective,” says Stefan Kessler, Policy Officer with JRS. The organisation is currently running a research and advocacy project on the situation of these destitute migrants.

Police close French migrant camp, detain refugees

French authorities have moved in to flatten a camp used by asylum-seekers and refugees in the port city of Calais. The New York Times reports today that they

dismantled and bulldozed a camp for undocumented migrants outside this English Channel port on Tuesday, rounding up almost 300 Afghans, Pakistanis and others who gathered there for years in the hope of making clandestine journeys across the 22 miles of water to Britain.

The BBC has video here.

UNHCR visited the camp a few weeks ago, and published a set of photographs here.

85 missing as boat carrying Haitians capsizes

Reuters reports a boat with between 160 and 200 Haitian migrants aboard capsized and sank off the Turks and Caicos islands on Monday, according to U.S. Coast Guard crews helping local authorities rescue survivors from the reefs.

The island nation of Haiti was pummeled by four consecutive tropical storms and hurricanes last September. Recovery has been slow and food scarce, forcing desperate people to take perilous journeys across open oceans seeking relief.

Read more from the Associated Press here and read more about Haiti here.