A Journey into Exile participants, each acting in character of the refugee identity assigned to them, discuss their options for seeking safety. Photo: T. Sison/CJI
There’s chaos all around you as a full-blown conflict erupts in your country. You have only a few precious minutes to escape and seek refuge elsewhere. What are the three things you’ll take with you? Your choices include your passport, water, a Bible or Koran, a change of clothes, a first-aid kit, family photos, and a phone.
Participants in A Journey into Exile, a simulation that invites people to put themselves in the shoes of a refugee, were asked this question and urged to make a quick decision. The exercise, developed by Jesuit Refugee Service-Canada, held March 5 at Loretto College in Toronto, was co-organized by Canadian Jesuits International, the Mary Ward Centre and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto.
During the one-and-a-half-hour immersive exercise, each participant was given the identity of a real refugee from a specific region of the world, along with a short biography. The participant-refugee was asked to make decisions, either individually or as a group, that had life-or-death consequences.
The decisions participants were asked to make in the exercise, said facilitator and JRS-Canada Program Manager Tevfik Karatop, are the same ones millions of refugees face when they are displaced by war and conflict, persecution, natural disasters and climate-induced migration.
Refugees, Karatop said, often face these options: take a dangerous route to a Western country, stay in a refugee camp in a neighbouring country, live as an urban refugee, or return to their country. All these choices are fraught with danger, he added.
Participants heard about a Syrian mother of three who fled her country during the civil war and paid a smuggler to take her and her children to a safe country in Europe. Just as they were about to leave, the smuggler told her she could only bring one child with her.
Throughout the exercise – which also included refugee testimonies and videos – participants learned about how 30-40% of refugees choose to stay in a refugee camp, where the average stay is 17 years, or how 5 to 10% elect to embark on a dangerous journey either on foot, in jampacked vehicles or in flimsy and overcrowded boats operated by smugglers.
Participants shared their experiences of the simulation, with one saying she identified with the experience of the Syrian mother who was told by the smuggler to leave her two children behind. “That was heartbreaking. I have three children myself, and her story really resonated with me.” Another participant shared the fluctuating emotions he felt when his character thought he would make it to safety, only to have his hopes dashed.
Students from St Joseph’s College School in Toronto learn about what it means to be a refugee during the Journey into Exile simulation. Photo: Pieter Niemeyer/CJI
“I can’t do justice to these stories of real people, some of whom I have met,” said Karatop. He urged participants to learn about refugees and their stories to better understand that, like most of us, they just want a safe and better life in a new country. “These people had a life, a history before their refugee experience, unless they were born in a refugee camp. Their refugee experience doesn’t define them.” He showed a video of a young woman who finished her primary and secondary education in a refugee camp and was able to go to a university with help from a Jesuit institution. JRS also offers education to refugees living in or outside refugee camps.
Karatop also reminded participants that Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees everyone “the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”
Earlier in the day, more than 70 students from St. Joseph’s College School in Toronto also participated in the same exercise, which was also facilitated by Karatop and representatives from CJI, the Mary Ward Centre, and the Sisters of St. Joseph in Toronto. On March 6, students from Brebeuf College School, a Jesuit-founded high school in Toronto, also participated in the exercise.
Students from Brebeuf College School, a Jesuit-founded high school in Toronto, participate in the same exercise on March 6. Photo: Pieter Niemeyer/CJI
The simulation, which JRS-Canada launched about six years ago, is designed to increase participants’ empathy for refugees. With public opinion in many Western countries becoming increasingly hostile towards refugees, the hope is that the simulation “becomes a tool that helps non-refugees be more welcoming towards refugees, and stand in solidarity with them,” according to JRS Canada.
In 2023, there were more than 110 million individuals forcibly displaced worldwide, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It projects that the figure will increase to 130.8 million in 2024.
