On World Refugee Day, June 20, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Cambodia has issued a statement echoing Pope Francis’ appeal for a shared response to the global refugee situation. “With more than 68 million people displaced worldwide, the call of Pope … Continued
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) has appointed Louie Bacomo as the next Regional Director of JRS Asia Pacific. Bacomo will assume the role on June 1, when current director Fr Bambang A Sipayung SJ completes his term. Bacomo first began working … Continued
It was a time of sharing but also an experience of a very real migration issue in the Philippines. As part of their annual meeting, the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) Migration Network travelled from Manila to Marawi where … Continued
They are coming from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Vietnam, Somalia, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and even Iraq. Some of them are children and some were still children when they first set foot in Thailand years ago. What do they have in common? … Continued
Fr Min Kim SJ, Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific Coordinator for the Migration network, shares his realisations and the apostolic responses of Jesuit conferences around the world towards the situation of refugees and migrants from the meeting of the Global … Continued
The sound of children playing in a school playground or the bell ringing to signal the start of class may be commonplace for most of us, but for many asylum seekers and refugees in Bangkok, it has been a long … Continued
Australian Jesuit Provincial Fr Brian McCoy has announced a project to bring together the Jesuits’ concerns for Indigenous Australians and asylum seekers, which he describes as “the bookends of rejection” in Australian history.
The first bookend, Fr McCoy said, is the arrival of the First Fleet of convicts and military from Britain in what is now Sydney in 1788.
Jesuit Refugee Service Australia has teamed up with Refugee Council of Australia to create a programme that gives young people the chance to meet a refugee and hear first hand the reasons why people are forced to flee their homes.
“We’re seeing the biggest migration crisis since WWII, and yet, it’s not the voices of those being forced to flee their homes we hear, but the voices of the powerful. At JRS we believe this needs to change,” said JRS Australia in its website.
“The world is our house.” This phrase used by early Jesuit Jerome Nadal appropriately begins a section on Jesuit work with indigenous communities, the special focus of the 2017 Yearbook of the Society of Jesus.
“So, where is home for you?” Upon hearing this question, Sediqa broke down in tears. This seemingly innocent question brought back the only vague memory she has of the home she left when she was four. Being Hazara, a Shiite ethnic group in predominantly Sunni Afghanistan, she and her family were forced to flee the land they called home. Now 24 years old, Sediqa is stranded in Cisarua, West Java, Indonesia, the last stop in her seemingly endless journey through Pakistan, Iran and to the promised land that seems more and more distant as the time passes.