The JRS statement advocates for a change in international policies towards refugees that are based on “fear of the stranger” and calls for greater responsibility and cooperation among governments. “It is extremely worrying that the world’s richest states continue to shirk their responsibilities with regard to refugees. Instead of welcoming people, forced by extreme poverty and violence to flee their homes, they are slamming their doors shut. Their actions are making the global system of international protection unsustainable”, says JRS International Director, Peter Balleis SJ.

JRS continues to say that some of the national policies and media depictions in a variety of developed nations treat the arrival of the stranger as a threat to public security or perceived cultural identity. This often disregards the positive and varied contributions made by refugees and migrants to their host nations and that refugees do not choose to leave their homes.

According to the JRS one impact of this is that developing states are left to bear the responsibility of hosting 80 percent of the global refugee population. However as Fr. Balleis points out , the once open-door policy of developing states is rapidly closing as many developing states such as Cambodia, Kenya, Panama, and Thailand have adopted increasingly restrictive policies towards displaced populations. These countries view developed states, driven by fear of the stranger, as no longer interested in sharing responsibility for global international protection”.

Despite all this, certain overburdened states have put policies in place to accept even more refugees and have shown that it is possible to do more. Last March, the Ecuadorian government began a process to regularize the status of more than 50,000 hitherto unrecognized refugees. One month later, South Africa announced the adoption of procedures to provide temporary protection to more than one million Zimbabweans fleeing their homes.

On this International Refugee Day, JRS is advocating that changes be made to our national and international policies to reduce the suffering of some of the most vulnerable members of our global community. JRS which works in over 50 countries and employs over 1,000 staff: lay, Jesuits and other religious to meet the education, health, social and other needs of 500,000 refugees and IDPs, more than half of whom are women. Its services are provided to refugees regardless of their race, ethnic origin, or religious beliefs.