Newsroom

With a global staff of more than 1,500 worldwide, the Jesuit Refugee Service is a key source for journalists who seek information on the latest issues on forced displacement in the world. Journalists visiting this site have access to press releases, latest news affecting refugees and other forcibly displaced persons, updates from JRS projects and activities, speeches, special features and more.

JRS programmes are implemented through more than 50 country offices and a large network of partners, and annually benefit more than 500,000 people worldwide.

Our global network of regional communications officers, based throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, can provide updates in emergencies and access to field staff.

Regional staff can lend insight into JRS programmes and advocacy priorities and provide detailed information on current global crises.

For media inquiries or to arrange an interview, please contact our communications staff.

For all other inquiries, please call +39 06 689 77465

USA: JRS director underlines importance of Jesuit values
Spokane, 17 May 2013 – As they embark on the next stage of their lives university graduates should remember the Ignatian principle of pursuing aspirations both for oneself and our interconnected world, echoed Peter Balleis SJ, International Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, in a speech in Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.
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Australia: Jesuit Refugee Service urges government to reinstate work rights and provide vulnerable families with adequate support
Sydney, 14 May 2013 – The government decision to release families on bridging visas is a positive step, but the omission of the right to work will put asylum seekers at high risk of destitution, according to a statement by the Jesuit Refugee Service Australia earlier this week.
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Colombia: increased displacement in Valle del Cauca in 2012, but government response ineffective
Bogota, 2 May 2013 – Significant increases in conflict between paramilitary, guerrilla and government forces have left more than 5,200 people displaced last year in Buenaventura, a district in southeastern region of Valle del Cauca. Despite increased forced displacement, the state has failed to guarantee assistance to the victims of violence in the region, according to a report by the Jesuit Refugee Service, Buenaventura: An Unanswered Humanitarian Crisis.
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USA: Jesuit Refugee Service aims for threefold expansion of higher education to refugees by 2018
Washington DC, 23 April 2013 – With less than one university-trained teacher for every 280 Darfur refugees in Chad, the case for greater access to higher education is clear. To meet these needs, JRS plans to expand its provision of higher education from three to 10 sites by 2018.
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UNHCR-Jesuit agreement enhances access to higher education for the forcibly displaced
Rome, 11 April 2013 – The UN refugee agency and the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), through its partner Jesuit Commons: Higher Education at the Margins initiative (JC:HEM), have signed an agreement to enhance higher education opportunities for refugees and other forcibly displaced people through online and on-site courses.
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Central African Republic: projects suspended and staff evacuated
Yaoundé, 27 March 2013 – JRS staff were forced to evacuate the Central African Republic (CAR) and suspend projects for the second time in three months due to worsening conflict between government forces and the Séleka rebel coalition.
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Democratic Republic of Congo: unexploded ordnances in schools, students at risks
Goma, 27 March 2013 – Unexploded grenades, bullets and other unused munitions were found last month in sewage drains used by some schools in the North Kivu capital. For students in the area, school is not a place of protection, but a threat to their lives.
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Thailand: post-fire relief efforts underway in Mae Surin refugee camp
Bangkok, 26 March 2013 – A fire that swept through Mae Surin refugee camp in northern Thailand on Friday has been met with swift relief by NGOs and community-based organisations. According to JRS staff, 37 Burmese refugees and asylum seekers lost their lives and several thousands have been made homeless.
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Thailand: migrant workers face continued hardship
Bangkok, 22 March 2013 – Last January Thailand's estimated two million irregular migrant workers were granted a four-month extension, until April 2013, for work permits as they wait for their national governments to verify their nationalities. Although this is a welcome step as a temporary measure, after the new deadline passes, irregular migrants will face the same risks of arrest and deportation as they do currently, according to JRS Thailand Migrant Outreach Officer, Kohnwilai Teppunkoonngam.
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Pope Francis: protect humanity, the poorest, the weakest, the stranger
Rome, 19 March 2013 – In his inauguration homily, Pope Francis called on those in positions of responsibility and all men and women of goodwill to be protectors of creation and humanity, and not allow "hatred, envy and pride" to taint their lives.
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Rwanda: after 17 years along Congolese refugees, JRS withdraws from the country
Bujumbura, 15 March 2013 – In late January the Jesuit Refugee Service has closed its project in Rwanda after 17 years of accompaniment of the nearly 40,000 refugees from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, bringing an end some of the oldest JRS projects in world.
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New Pope, son of a migrant, sign of hope and justice
Rome, 14 March 2013 – The white smoke signifying the election of a new Pontiff finally arrived at 7pm last night from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, just 300 metres from the offices of the Jesuit Refugee Service. Approximately an hour later, the announcement of Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina as Pope Francis was made public.
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USA: Jesuit Refugee Service Jordan Director to visit schools and parishes
Washington DC, 27 February 2013 – Jesuit Refugee Service Jordan Director Colin Gilbert will visit various Jesuit high schools, universities and parishes throughout the United States next month.
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Forty-six leading Congolese and international NGOs welcome Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework, but call for further action to make peace a reality
Goma/Kinshasa/ Rome/ Washington DC, 24 February 2013 – A group of prominent Congolese and international NGOs today called on countries in the Great Lakes region, along with their international partners, to ensure that the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework Agreement signed in Addis Ababa is given the political backing necessary to bring an end to war in the eastern Congo.
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Democratic Republic of Congo: call for a genuine peace process
Goma, 14 February 2013 – For years the international community has attempted to help stabilise eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), at the expense of billions of US dollars, yet sustainable peace remains elusive. Elections in November 2011 were widely seen as lacking credibility and provincial and local elections have been delayed indefinitely.
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India: Afghan students practice their English skills in New Delhi visit
New Delhi, 12 February 2013 – Tuesday at Humayun's Tomb might have looked like any class trip with students singing on the bus, teachers telling students to stay together and respect the monuments. But for these 32 teenagers, it was their first time outside of Afghanistan, and a real opportunity to use the English they have been learning over the past four years.
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Colombia: stop! End the recruitment and use of children in war
Bogota, 11 February 2013 – The Jesuit Refugee Service in Colombia launched this year's activities marking 12 February, Red Hand Day, to express their rejection of the recruitment and use of children and adolescents in war and armed conflict.
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Italy: homeless refugees die in tragic accident, a tragic and inexcusable paradox
Rome, 8 February 2013 – JRS Italy expresses profound sorrow at the death of two homeless Somali refugees who died in a fire in an underground passageway in late January. The men had lit a fire to warm themselves for the night, but the fire became uncontrollable and they burned to death.
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Democratic Republic of Congo: local rebels sign historic peace agreement in Masisi
Masisi, 7 February 2013 – The Jesuit Refugee Service welcomes the peace agreement signed on 5 February 2013 by different armed groups to stop interethnic violence and bring peace in Masisi, in the mineral-rich North Kivu province. The agreement seeks to bring an end to inter-ethnic violence which has led to the death of 310 people since April 2012, the displacement of tens of thousands of others, and the destruction of villages and camps for displaced persons.
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Burundi: JRS closes food security projects, guaranteed long-term impact
Bujumbura, 6 February 2013 – When she returned home to Burundi, after 16 years as a refugee in a camp in Tanzania, Astérie Kantore realised she had lost everything her family possessed before the war. She no longer had a house and felt like a foreigner in what was once her own community. She would have to rebuild her life from zero.
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Donor pledges must prioritise urgent humanitarian plight of displaced Syrians
Beirut, Rome, Washington DC, 1 February 2013 – With the recent escalation of violence and ongoing shortages of food and other basic commodities, the Jesuit Refugee Service urges the international community to prioritise the humanitarian needs of the civilian population in Syria and neighbouring Jordan and Lebanon. It is absolutely essential that increased emergency support is directed towards organisations on the ground that both provide life sustaining aid to rising numbers of displaced persons and also promote cooperation across the ethnic and religious divide.
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Democratic Republic of Congo: after the war, signs of peace and reconciliation in Masisi
Bujumbura, 30 January 2013 – After months of bitter conflict, intercommunity tensions and dozens of dead in Masisi in eastern Congo, there is an atmosphere of relative calm and a renewed sense of hope between local communities. The mass participation of teachers and students in the workshop on teaching methods is a concrete sign of this desire to start over.
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Nepal: seventy-fifth thousandth refugee leaves camp in search of a bright future
New Delhi, 24 January 2013 – As the camp population decreases and the international resettlement effort continues, JRS celebrates the mass resettlement from Nepal. Six-year-old Yagandra Kami recently became the seventy-fifth thousandth Bhutanese refugee to leave Nepal for a new life with her family.
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Kenya: civil society group urges government to end abuse of refugees
Nairobi, 24 January 2013 – A number of civil society groups, including the Jesuit Refugee Service, strongly urged the Kenyan government on Tuesday to end police harassment and abuse of refugees and protect the basic human rights of all refugees and Kenyan citizens.
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Haiti: prioritising human rights for the displaced
Bogotá, Rome, Washington DC, Port-au-Prince, 14 January 2013 – Three years after the 12-January earthquake that struck Haiti, approximately 400,000 displaced people continue to live in vulnerable situations and without protection in camps in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the surrounding areas. The Jesuit Refugee Service expresses great concern, because the rights and appropriate guarantees for protection of displaced persons, as defined in the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, continue to be ignored.
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