News and Stories
While the Covid-19 outbreak has forced the world’s population to stay home, it has also directly caused homelessness and destitution among (rejected) asylum seekers. Research carried out by JRS Europe and its partners in nine EU countries shows that the pandemic exacerbated existing problems asylum seekers face accessing reception.
During the period between mid-March and June 2020, travels and flights within and outside Europe were largely suspended due to the Covid-19 containment measures. According to EU law, Member States are allowed to detain migrants for the purpose of returning them. In JRS’s view, therefore, in the Covid-19 context, Member States should have released people from detention and suspended new detention orders. This is not what happened.
On this sombre date marking 10 years since the start of the conflict in Syria, Jesuit Refugee Service MENA and Entreculturas ask the world to recognise the urgent and multiple crises unfolding in Syria and its neighbouring countries, particularly Lebanon and Jordan. We request renewed support for the Syrian people and their collective suffering.
With the outbreak of Covid-19, EU Member States ordered their populations to stay home and practice social distancing with the aim of reducing the spread of contagion. Complying with these measures was often particularly difficult for asylum seekers, as many of them were living in overcrowded reception facilities, or worse, they could not access reception and were left homeless during a pandemic. After mapping the impact of Covid-19 on reception systems in nine EU Member States (Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Spain), JRS Europe and its partners can conclude that the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated and exposed the already large existing flaws in the EU States’ reception systems.
When speaking of employment and education gaps between sexes, one concept is often repeated: a nation which does not grant its women equal opportunities is cutting its potential achievements by half. Half a labour force, half political participation, half the cultural output. Migrant and refugee women have often faced these disparities in their home countries, and they might continue facing them once in Europe.
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) calls on global leaders to ensure that COVID vaccine efforts prioritize all countries equally, and include refugees and other forcibly displaced people in each country’s vaccine distribution plans.
A statement from faith-based organizations working in Iraq welcoming the visit of His Holiness Pope Francis.
In Covid-19 and Immigration Detention: Lessons (Not) Learned, JRS Europe presents the findings and lessons learned from a mapping on the impact of Covid-19 on administrative detention in seven EU countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Malta, Romania, Portugal, Spain).
The report criticises bad practices, highlights a few positive decisions at national level, and gives recommendations to national authorities and the EU institutions on what to do during and beyond the pandemic.
It is with deep sorrow that Centro Astalli learns of the 41 confirmed victims of the shipwreck that occurred on Saturday 20 February in the central Mediterranean Sea.
