News and Stories
As the Jesuit Refugee Service celebrates the fortieth anniversary of its founding by the Servant of God Pedro Arrupe, I ask you to convey my cordial best wishes to those gathered at the Astalli Centre here in Rome, and to all JRS staff and volunteers throughout the world.
On the 3rd and 4th of November 2020, JRS Europe virtually held the 14th Detention Visitors Support Group (DVSG) meeting with the participation of about 30 visitors from JRS offices around Europe. The DVSG is an event designed to support and train individuals visiting detention centres and allow them to share about their experiences.
JRS calls for clarity on Frontex and Romanian border police alleged involvement in push-backs at sea
JRS Romania and JRS Europe join their voices in expressing serious concern about the increasing number of reports indicating that boats with migrants may have been informally returned to Turkey with the participation of EU Border Agency FRONTEX while in Greek territorial waters.
In the past two days, JRS Europe team along with the national directors from the 22 JRS Offices around Europe held the second virtual Regional Coordination Meeting of 2020.
JRS Europe is pleased to present the Annual Report 2019, an overview of the work carried out by the Regional Office in Brussels as well as 22 national JRS offices across Europe.
On October 5, the Italian Government approved the new Immigration Decree, that rewrites and modifies the former security decrees after two years from their entry into force.
The commitment to a more human approach to protection and the emphasis on the fact that migration is needed and positive for Europe with which the European Commission launched the Pact on Migration and Asylum is welcome. However, this rhetoric is reflected only sparsely in the related proposals. Instead of breaking with the fallacies of the EU’s previous approach and offering a fresh start, the Pact risks exacerbating the focus on externalisation, deterrence, containment and return.
JRS Luxembourg was founded in May 2020 after a long and valuable partnership between JRS Europe and the Group Ignatien pour les migrations (GIM), that during these years has been organising several activities in the field of migration in Luxembourg.
On this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, September 27, JRS Europe joins Pope Francis in calling for attention for the difficult situation of internally displaced people (IDPs). While current discussions on asylum in Europe focus on how to limit the numbers of refugees reaching our continent, it is important to remember that at global level the largest numbers of people who are “Forced like Jesus Christ to flee” are in fact displaced within their own home-countries.
