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

January, 2013
Press releases		   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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January, 2013
News		   India: livelihood training programmes promote self-sufficiency among Chin refugees
New Delhi, 2 January 2013 – Twenty women graduated from the first JRS-sponsored Chin women's tailoring course receiving not only new sewing machines for Christmas, but the know-how to make use of them in the new year.
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December, 2012
News		   India: NGOs and government discuss gaps in the protection of young refugees
New Delhi, 28 December 2012 – Despite legislative improvements in the protection of children in India, young refugees continue to be particularly vulnerable to neglect and abuse. This was the subject of a meeting in mid-December between representatives from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the government, NGOs and advocates.
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December, 2012
News		   Africa: African IDP Convention comes into force
Rome, 20 December 2012 – With the coming into force of the latest international treaty on 6 December last, African states are in a leading position when it comes to the establishment of a framework for protecting and helping internally displaced persons (IDPs). It is the first legally binding instrument to offer protection to the millions of Africans, who although forced to flee their homes, never cross an international border.
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December, 2012
Press releases		   Latin America and the Caribbean: migrants, an urgent call by God for justice and hospitality
Bogotá, 18 December 2012 – In commemoration of International Migrants Day, the works of the Society of Jesus, members of Jesuit Network with migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean, issue a message of solidarity and hope to the 214 million migrant brothers and sisters in the world. Despite the valuable contributions migrants make to their new host societies and countries of origin, a significant number of them are forced to live in vulnerable circumstances, without international protection from human rights violations.
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December, 2012
Project updates		   Eastern Africa: In memory of Angelo Lagu, director of JRS South Sudan
Nairobi, 15 December 2012 – It is with profound sadness that Jesuit Refugee Service Eastern Africa announces the sudden and tragic demise of our colleague Angelo Lagu, JRS South Sudan Country Director.
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December, 2012
News		   Europe: repression without responsibility
Brussels, 12 December 2012 – Morocco and Algeria have become the enforcers of an expanded European border, while countries like Spain and the EU at large wash their hands of responsibility for the detrimental impact these borders have on migrants. This was the conclusion of Teresa Alonso, director of Ceuta-based NGO Asociación Elín, at a Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Europe press conference to release the new report, Lives in Transition: Experiences of Migrants in Morocco and Algeria.
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December, 2012
Project updates		   Latin America: In memory of Acacio Belandria, Jesuit priest and symbol of the struggle for human rights
Bogota, 11 December 2012 – Yesterday was the day to commemorate the global struggle for human rights; a day to mark the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a commitment to preventing atrocities of war. On this day it is necessary to extend this commitment to other areas of human relationships, in which disputes over natural and economic resources are attacking the well-being of humankind. Thus, a call to hospitality and respect among peoples must prevail to renew the commitment to human rights.
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December, 2012
Press releases		   Global: a call on states to end the detention of children
Melbourne, Brussels, 10 December 2012 – On this Human Rights Day, the International Detention Coalition (IDC), together with the Global Campaign to End Immigration Detention of Children, call on states to take steps to prevent or end child detention and start employing humane community-based alternatives. Detention, even for short periods of time, has a negative psychological and emotional impact on migrant children, who typically do not pose a threat to the receiving community.
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December, 2012
Press releases		   Europe: EU-North Africa relationship puts migrant rights at risk
Brussels, Rome, 6 December 2012 – Police raids and forced expulsions of migrants are on the rise in Morocco, and migrants in Algeria are being pushed to live in dilapidated housing. The lack of an asylum law in both countries leaves too many forced migrants without access to refugee status. The abuse of migrant rights persists largely because the European Union too often looks the other way, according to a new report published today by the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Europe.
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December, 2012
Press releases		   Democratic Republic of Congo: further bloodshed and exhaustion facing internally displaced persons in Masisi
Bujumbura, 5 December 2012 – Bloodshed, destruction and massive population displacement continues to terrorise the population of Masisi, a mineral rich area in North Kivu, eastern Congo. At least 28 people were killed in Masisi since 29 November, as a consequence of on-going fighting between rival armed groups.
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November, 2012
News		   Europe: first EU workshop on immigration detention
Brussels, Athens, 29 November 2012 – With immigration detention a growing issue across Europe, NGOs from 15 European Union countries gathered in Greece to discuss ways to prevent the damaging and unnecessary detention of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. Greece was chosen to host the meeting due to international criticism of its migration and detention practices. The group concluded that immigration detention is widespread across the EU and that despite the existence and clear economic advantage of alternatives, they remain vastly unused.
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November, 2012
News		   Democratic Republic of Congo: precarious lives of displaced persons in Masisi
Goma, 27 November 2012 – On the one hand displaced Congolese are living in constant fear of the imminent arrival of the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels, which have already taken control of Goma, the North Kivu capital in eastern Congo. On the other hand, day in, day out they are suffering the effects of the violent attacks of numerous rebel groups in the area.
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November, 2012
News		   Global: hope through learning, higher education for refugees
Washington DC, 26 November 2012 – Georgetown University President Dr John DiGioia commemorated the 32nd anniversary of Jesuit Refugee Service this month by hosting a special panel discussion stressing the importance of higher education in refugee situations.
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November, 2012
News		   Democratic Republic of Congo: despite ongoing insecurity, JRS teams return to Goma and re-establish activities in Masisi
Goma, 23 November 2012 – Only three days after the fall of Goma, the North Kivu capital, and the armed advance of the rebel group March 23 Movement (M23), the Jesuit Refugee Service resumed activities for internally displaced persons (IDP) and local communities in Masisi, about 100 kilometres from the eastern Congo provincial city.
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November, 2012
News		   Democratic Republic of Congo: clashes in Goma leave thousands in urgent need of assistance
Bujumbura, 21 November 2012 – Tens of thousands of women, children and men are currently fleeing areas around the North Kivu capital Goma, in eastern Congo, as a consequence of a violent armed advance conducted by the rebel group, March 23 Movement (M23) which took control of the city yesterday.
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November, 2012
News		   Turkey: refugees from Afghanistan face winter crisis
Ankara,19 November 2012 – Refugees from Afghanistan are facing a harsh winter in Turkey this year. According to information provided to JRS, more than 8,900 Afghans have arrived in the country since 31 May, mainly arriving in through Iran. It is believed that most are fleeing the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, but some may have been residing in Iran for some time.
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November, 2012
Project updates		   Global: JRS 32 years on, continues to focus on education and building hope
Rome, 15 November 2012 – "Hatred, division and violence foster blindness and stupidity. They are self-destructive and have no future". With these words the JRS International Director, Peter Balleis SJ, focused his presentation at Georgetown University in Washington DC this morning at a conference, Kindling hope through learning, stressing the importance of higher education in refugee situations.
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November, 2012
Press releases		   Democratic Republic of Congo: stop the forgotten conflict in Masisi
Masisi (North Kivu), Rome, 14 November 2012 – Since last August, communities living in Masisi district in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been displaced on a daily basis and at least 18 have been murdered, caught between tit-for-tat attacks by opposing rebel groups. Unless the peacekeeping forces (MONUSCO) and the Congolese army urgently intervene to protect the civilian population, more innocent lives will be lost.
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November, 2012
News		   Philippines: Laguna Lake residents weather the storm
Laguna Lake, 13 November 2012 — Communities around Laguna Lake, just east of the capital, Manila, are still suffering from the aftermath of flooding from a succession of tropical storms, the latest of which, Typhoon Ofel, hit the country late last month.
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November, 2012
News		   Haiti: exacerbation of humanitarian crisis following Hurricane Sandy
Bogotá, 9 November 2012 – The social impact of natural disasters in Haiti accumulate in a spiral of growing environmental vulnerability and worsening humanitarian crisis in the country.
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October, 2012
News		   Europe: one size fits all immigration detention fails to deliver expected outcomes
Brussels, 26 October 2012 – Immigration detention is mostly unnecessary because governments can instead use more humane and cost-effective alternatives, argues JRS Europe in their newly adopted policy position on alternatives to immigration detention.
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October, 2012
Project updates		   South Sudan: spreading the message of peace on-air
Kajo Keji, 18 October 2012 – The community of Kajo Keji will bid farewell this month to the regular Jesuit Refugee Service talk shows. The radio show sought to raise awareness of conflict resolution and peace building over the course of the past four years.
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October, 2012
Press releases		   Europe: NGOs call on EU border agency to better protect human rights of migrants
Brussels, 17 October 2012 – The EU border agency, Frontex, has finally put the human rights of migrants square on the agenda with the first meeting of the newly established Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights, held yesterday in Warsaw. The forum, made up of civil society organisations and EU institutions, selected JRS Europe to serve as co-chair with Frontex.
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October, 2012
Project updates		   Democratic Republic of Congo: project expands to meet the needs of the most inaccessible displaced populations
Mweso, 16 October 2012 – With the recent expansion of activities to the Muhunga and Mokoto camps, the Jesuit Refugee Service is fulfilling its target of reaching out to internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in the most remote and inaccessible areas of war-torn eastern Congo.
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