Imagine your feelings if every time you visited a particular friend you were searched, asked a series of intimidating questions and then taken to a hostile and foreign environment. What if that friend was more of an acquaintance? How long would you be able to handle such difficult visiting conditions? A week? Two weeks?
Mohammad is one of the many Muslim Rohingya refugees forced to flee their homes in western Burma. After a hazardous journey across Burma, he was able to cross into Cambodia and apply for asylum. Sr Denise Coghlan RSM, Jesuit Refugee Service Cambodia Director, shares JRS’ work with the Rohingya.
Mohammad’s story
A Jesuit brother in Vietnam has highlighted several areas he feels the government should focus on in the coming years – education, corruption, legislation, ethnic minority groups and the environment.
Brother Anthony Ba SJ of the Jesuit-run Alberto Hurtado Center for Pastoral and Social Service in Ho Chi Minh City said this after completing a PESTLE analysis on Vietnam in 2011.
As the Jesuit Refugee Service marks three decades of ministering to the needs of refugees, Fr Bernard Hyacinth Arputhasamy SJ, regional director of JRS in Asia and the Pacific, speaks to UCA News about the JRS mission in the region.
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) published in January its strategic framework for the next four years, upon receiving approval of the document from Father General Adolfo Nicolás SJ. The product of extensive consultation throughout 2011, the Jesuit Refugee Service Strategic Framework 2012-2015 provides an inspirational and challenging set of strategies for all 10 JRS regions.
The free legal services offered by the Jesuit Social Center in Tokyo in the last year has proven to be a boon to foreign migrants. The centre already has 35 legal cases solved or awaiting resolution in its files.
“More than half of all the Catholics in Japan are of other nationalities. Anyone in contact with foreigners in Japan realises the complexity of the situations they face, their need to learn the Japanese language, and the legal barriers they encounter,” said Fr Ando Isamu SJ, who is on the centre’s staff.
At the age of 70, when most people are retired or taking it easy, Australian Jesuit Celso Romanin SJ responded to an urgent call from Jesuit Refugee Service Australia for a priest to provide pastoral care to the detainees on Christmas Island. He had eight years of experience with refugees in Australia, Asia and Africa, yet the prospect of going to Christmas Island at his age was daunting. But he put his reservations before the Lord and ended up spending October with the detainees on Christmas Island.
An estimated 20 million people across Southeast Asia have been affected by flooding since June. Most are in Thailand, but typhoons struck the Philippines in October, and Laos was hit by cyclones in July and August. About 1.8 million people in Cambodia and Vietnam are also suffering from the worst flooding in a decade. Myanmar also is experiencing flooding, though the extent is unclear because little information has been released from the country. Local media there reported some 30,000 people were hit by flash floods last month that killed more than 160.
Fr Bambang Sipayung SJ has been appointed Regional Director of Jesuit Refugee Service-Asia Pacific. His three-year term begins on June 1, 2012.
Fr Sipayung replaces Fr Bernard Arputhasamy SJ who has served the region with dedication and competence for nearly seven years.
In his letter of appointment, Father General Adolfo Nicolás said that Fr Sipayung’s rich field experience will be “a great asset to JRS”.
Refugees and asylum seekers now have the opportunity to get a degree in European universities in 2012 with the launch of applications to the AREAS scholarship on November 1.
The Academic Relations between Asia and Europe (AREAS) is a mobility and scholarship project financed by the European Commission through the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 – Strand 1 programme.
“AREAS want to ensure that vulnerable populations under Target 3 category are well-served,” said Project Coordinator Bianca Buttiglione.