Jesuit Refugee Service

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. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1980 and now working in over 50 countries, the priority of JRS is to be where the need is greatest or where no other organization is present.

JRS has been working in Asia and the Pacific since 1980, when the plight of the Indochinese boat people inspired Fr Pedro Arrupe to found the JRS. JRS responded to the crisis by working in the camps in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines. Today, the work of JRS has evolved from emergency response to a longer term commitment as refugee camps along the Thai border developed into quasi-permanent settlements. This is in part due to political instability and human rights violations in neighbouring Burma, which led to a string of exodus of refugees beginning in the late 1980s. Hundreds of thousands more are internally displaced inside Burma or living precariously as undocumented migrant workers in neighbouring countries.

Bangkok, 26 August 2010 – For many of the asylum-seekers gathered in a suburban house on the edge of Bangkok it was the first time since arriving in Thailand that they had heard the words “We want you to decide for yourselves.” Within minutes of being informed that the new community centre for Ahmadi asylum-seekers in Bangkok was to be managed and owned by their community, the group quickly began to organize themselves, forming a management committee and delegating key responsibilities to representatives from their community.

Refugees are not people experiencing economic difficulties but people who face possible death if they remain in their home countries, participants at a World Refugee Day program in Bangkok learnt.

“As Tamils, my family was threatened. We were afraid to be killed by the military and therefore decided to escape,” said Thulika, 18, a Sri Lankan.

“In Thailand, even though we are not threatened, we are still not free … We can’t work legally. My brother and myself can’t go to school,” said Thulika, who came to Thailand four years ago to escape the civil war.

Thulika was one of two refugees who spoke about their plight during a June 20 Mass organized by the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) to mark World Refugee Day and the service’s 30th anniversary.

This year is the sixth anniversary of the United Nations designated World Refugee Day.  World Refugee Day is an opportunity for the world to honor the courage, resilience and strength of refugees. As global attention is focused on the plight of refugees and the causes of their exile, we at JRS are organizing a day of festivity and celebration. World Refugee Day for JRS is an important occasion in which we collectively acknowledge the determination, will to survive, and the many contributions refugee’s make to their host countries.

Church workers serving migrant children from Myanmar in Thailand’s southern Ranong province are opposing government plans to close down their centers.

The Church runs many educational centers in Ranong province, known as Thailand’s “Burmese province”, UCA News reports These provide basic education to children of Myanmar migrants just across the border.

However, the provincial governor last May announced plans to either close down the centers or place them under the jurisdiction of the education ministry.

Ranong governor Wanchat Wongchaichana, who took office earlier this year, said the province plans to repatriate illegal Myanmar migrants and has ordered that the 96 schools in the province be checked for illegal students.

“Plans to disband the centers for Burmese kids and repatriate them do not solve the problem,” said Fr Wichien Radomkit, director of Maria Learning Center in Ranong.