News and Stories

Detention of migrants for the purpose of enforcing returns was largely maintained throughout the pandemic. Regrettably, as research carried out by JRS Europe and its partners in seven EU countries shows, the pandemic did not result in an increased interest in the establishment of alternatives to detention. A missed opportunity.

JRS UK’s new report calls for a society that welcomes sanctuary seekers as neighbours

Jesuit Refugee Service USA (JRS/USA) and Georgetown University recently published a report which finds that restrictions put in place to protect public health during the pandemic will have long-lasting impacts on US and global asylum policies.

JRS Europe, together with other eight Christian organisations working on asylum and migration issues at the European level, provided their expertise to analyse and share their positions and concerns on the New Pact’s proposals.

Account of a discussion organised by the Spanish JRS office about the recent report on the impact of the pandemic on migrant detention.

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.