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The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is an international Catholic organization with a mission to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees and forcibly displaced people. JRS undertakes services at national and regional levels with the support of an international office in Rome.
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Panel to raise refugee awareness at WYD festival |
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Two young people will recount their experiences of, respectively, being an unaccompanied migrant to the United States and a refugee in Australia at the launch of the documentary Posada during the MAGiS08 Youth Festival this week. Posada tells the stories of three young unaccompanied migrants who travelled to the US from various countries in Central America. The film's director, Jesuit priest Mark McGregor, was inspired to make the documentary while working as a chaplain in juvenile detention centres in Los Angeles. 'I met hundreds of these children, languishing in detention facilities for months. I was inspired by their faith and resiliency,' he says. Johny Figueroa, one of the migrants featured in Posada, is currently attending World Youth Day in Australia. He will tell how he left Honduras as a teenager and was subsequently detained by immigration officials in the US. Akuol Diing, who fled Sudan as an 8-year-old, will discuss her experience as a refugee and her eventual arrival in Australia at the age of 20. The panel, which will be facilitated by prominent Jesuit priest and lawyer Fr Frank Brennan SJ, includes experts in the field of immigration, refugees, slavery and human trafficking: the Director of Jesuit Refugee Service Australia, Fr David Holdcroft SJ, the Managing Director of the Not For Sale Campaign, Mark Wexler, committee member of Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans (ACRATH), Sr Suzette Clark RSC, as well as Fr McGregor SJ. The launch of Posada at the MAGiS08 Youth Festival is particularly timely given Pope Benedict XVI's address on the 94th World Day of Migrants and Refugees earlier this year in which he urged "host" countries such as the United States and Australia to welcome displaced people in a spirit of understanding and compassion. '[Catholic] teaching holds that a basic moral test is how a society treats it most vulnerable neighbours,' says Fr McGregor. 'We need to search for greatness in how we treat newcomers.' In the US, more than 80,000 immigrant children aged between four and 18 make their own way into the United States each year. In Australia, where no land border exists, illegal immigration seems less important. 'Australia is however not immune to the global forces that force many people to move,' says the Director of Jesuit Refugee Services, Fr David Holdcroft SJ. 'These amount to increasing competition for finite resources. It is time we introduced a fair guest worker scheme for people from nearby countries such as East Timor and the Pacific as well as increase our quota in the intake of refugees.' Members of the public are invited to attend this 45-minute discussion on Wednesday July 16 at 7pm, at the Gonzaga Barry Centre at Loreto Kirribilli. A screening of Posada will follow at 8pm.
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JRS hosts another smash Winter Ball |
 It was – to borrow the words of one guest – the “the party-to-end-all-parties”. The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Winter Solstice Ball was again a smash hit, remembering the 38 million refugees and forcibly displaced people living in tragic poverty. And the night began with a bang – rock band Evermore entertaining the 420 guests. Young people – many of whom are graduates of St. Aloysius and Riverview – come back year-after-year not just to see old friends and hit the dance floor. They return knowing the answer to human misery is action, not despair. For those who came to this year’s JRS Ball, at Darling Harbour last Saturday June 21st, it was not a matter of whether we want to be involved in the ethical challenges of global poverty and the plight of refugees. Rather, rather we left with a deep sense of questioning what the depth of our own contribution will be. All of us know simply being at the JRS Winter Solstice Ball is contributing, less through the thousands of dollars raised, and more through seeing the measure of our worth in the wider context of international justice and humanity. Our Master of Ceremonies, Channel Nine Newsreader Michael Usher, reminded us the night was about pausing to reflect on those whose lives are a daily struggle at the same time acknowledging the splendid work of JRS spanning 28 years. The head of the JRS Australia, Fr David Holdcroft SJ, kept us informed of current projects. All of us were moved watching snapshots from throughout the world of JRS volunteers at work; fulfilling a mission to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees and forcibly displaced people. Helping us consciously recognise that each refugee and asylum seeker is not just a mere statistic – but a fellow human being – was this year’s Guest of Honour, 2004 Young Australian of the Year, Hugh Evans. He spoke movingly about his work with refugees during the Boxing Day tsunami and how refugees, too, are instilled with human value. Money raised on the night is being funnelled to our asylum seeker homeless shelter project in Sydney’s King Cross as well as to a JRS project in Kenya. The JRS Winter Solstice Ball can hardly be claimed as a "big victory" in helping alleviate the human misery of refugees, but we know that simply engaging in the struggle is itself worth doing. And bringing that struggle to an end is not impossible. It requires a global revolution in thinking and practice, particularly in affluent countries like Australia. The challenge is not an easy one. But those of us attending the JRS Ball each year know it can be achieved, and know what a real party that would be!
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JRS calls for fairer system of asylum |
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On the occasion of refugee week, Jesuit Refugee Service Australia calls upon the Federal Government to develop a fairer system of refugee assessment for those claiming asylum in Australia. This can be achieved by extending the legal definition of refugee to encompass the full range of international human rights obligations to which Australia is party. JRS Australia works with asylum seekers in the community, many of whom are denied the right to work. Its director, Fr David Holdcroft SJ, says, “These people are placed in the ludicrous situation of expecting to fail every stage of refugee assessment before they can appeal directly to the minister. At this stage they often cannot work as a condition of their visa and have to rely completely on the kindness of others to survive. "They are often from refugee-like situations which do not qualify them for the status of refugee under the Refugee Convention. "Immigration Minister Chris Evans has said that he feels too much power is vested in his office to make these so-called discretionary decisions. The process is potentially unpredictable and hugely burdensome for everyone involved." While Australia is a signatory to instruments such as the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, there is no legal avenue which encompasses this when asylum seekers make claims, apart from direct appeal to the minister. "The present government has made several steps in the right direction with the abolition of the Pacific Solution and Temporary Protection Visas, and the review of the system of detention. It is important that it extends these reforms to all aspects of refugee policy," says Fr Holdcroft. "Australia has a proven capacity to absorb large numbers of refugees who have, as a result, made important contributions to the nation. Over 700 000 refugees have settled here since World War II. The time is opportune to ensure that our system is fair to all who seek protection here."
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