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

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Democratic Republic of Congo: in its management of the security crisis, the government must not lose sight of the rights of children
Kinshasa, London, 19 September 2012 – While the security, political and diplomatic crisis in the east of the country is deepening, the undersigned organisations remind the Congolese government of its duty to prevent the involvement of children in armed conflict. Under international law, the recruitment or use of children by armed forces or armed groups is unlawful and may constitute a war crime; and it is the primary responsibility of governments to safeguard the rights of children in their territory and to ensure their protection against military exploitation.
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Malta: NGOs urge government to initiate independent inquiry into the death of a migrant in custody
Valletta, 3 July 2012 – Nine Maltese NGOs have expressed their condemnation of the use of violence by state officials following the tragic death of Malian migrant, Mamadou Kamara, while in the custody of the Detention Service on 30 June.
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International: G20 summit, an opportunity for world leaders to put refugee hospitality at the heart of globalisation
World Refugee Day press release Rome, 18 June 2012 – Over the next two days, the leaders of the G20 nations will make difficult decisions regarding the stability of the global economy. In conmemoration of World Refugee Day, 20 June, the Jesuit Refugee Service urges world leaders to place social cohesion at the core of their decision-making process, and not lose sight of the needs of more than 45 million forcibly-displaced migrants worldwide.
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Democratic Republic of Congo: humanitarian emergency, more than 20,000 flee to Goma
Goma, Rome, Washington DC, 7 May 2012 – "It is nearly impossible to believe that, year after year, the lives of people in eastern Congo continue to be destroyed. The international community must commit to ensuring this region becomes safe and finally free of the armed groups, interested only in its natural resources, who prevent innocent civilians from living in peace", said JRS Great Lakes Regional Director, Tony Calleja SJ.
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Europe: JRS welcomes investigation into migrant deaths in the Mediterranean
Brussels, 29 March 2012 – This latest report is yet another sad reminder that seeking protection in Europe is a matter of life and death, according to JRS, commenting on the Council of Europe report, "Lives Lost in the Mediterranean: Who is Responsible?"
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Europe: EU states need not detain migrants, says JRS report
Brussels, 20 December 2011 – Detaining migrants is unnecessary because more humane non-custodial alternatives exist, according to the latest JRS report, From Deprivation to Liberty.
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International: JRS report highlights systematic policy hindering refugee arrivals
Rome, Brussels, 7 December 2011 – In its latest report, Safe and Secure: How do Refugees Experience Europe's Borders?, JRS finds ample evidence that European governments actively hinder refugee arrivals. JRS field offices confirm these deplorable practices are not limited to Europe; they are rapidly becoming the norm throughout Asia and Africa.
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Malta: court rules forcible return of Somalis a violation of human rights
Valletta, 5 December 2011– The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Malta welcomes the ground breaking court judgment in the case of the two Somali nationals forcibly returned to Libya in 2004.
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Cambodia: nation hosts milestone international meeting in the battle against landmines
Phnom Penh, 28 November 2011 – Leading members of the international community are gathered in Cambodia - the cradle of the anti-landmine movement - to push for progress in reducing the harm still caused by anti-personnel landmines.
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International: new spiritual and ethical resources launched to mark 31 years of JRS service
Rome, 14 November 2011 – In commemoration of the thirty-first anniversary of the foundation of the organisation, the Jesuit Refugee Service announced the launch of a new section of its website: Theology, spirituality and ethics, a basis of the JRS mission.
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International: JRS urges states to uphold standards established by the Convention on Cluster Munitions
Rome, 9 November 2011 – The Jesuit Refugee Service expresses concern about the forthcoming review of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). If the current protocol on cluster munitions is approved, it would sanction continued use of cluster munitions proven to cause unacceptable harm to civilians.
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