Jesuit Refugee Service: The world must not forget Bhutanese refugees
The JRS international director talks of the mission of the Church for peace and reconciliation among refugees in Asia, drawing attention to "the most tragic situation of the Bhutanese in Nepal."
Roma (AsiaNews) Bhutanese refugees are among the hardest-hit refugees in China. The desperate situation facing around 100,000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal was highlighted by the head of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) on World Refugee Day. Rome-based JRS International director, Lluis Magrina SJ, told AsiaNews: "The plight of the Bhutanese refugees in Nepal must be emphasised. Their situation is deteriorating as they realise they have no future. They see there is nothing for them and they are falling into despair."
Around 130,000 refugees of Nepalese origin from Bhutan have lived in seven camps in eastern Nepal for 13 years now. They fled or were expelled from the country in the eighties following a wave of repression and both Nepalese and international attempts to have them repatriated have so far led to nothing.
JRS works in the camps for Bhutanese refugees, running education services on behalf of Caritas and UNHCR. Another essential task of JRS workers is simply to be with the refugees as they experience growing demoralisation. "The important thing for the church is to keep accompanying refugees, so they will know someone cares for them," said Fr Magrina. "Refugees feel absolutely without an identity so having a friend means much to them, because it signifies a link to the outside world, with someone who cares."
For this reason, Fr Magrina's appeal together with the rest of JRS, for this year's World Refugee Day is that the world should listen more to refugees, to learn what their needs are, so as to reach out to them more effectively.
JRS runs a range of programs for refugees across Asia, hundreds of thousands of whom have been displaced for several years, like the Bhutanese, Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu, and Burmese refugees in Thailand, to name a few.
Apart from aid programs, JRS which is present in over 50 countries worldwide gives importance to education, pastoral care and increasingly to peace and reconciliation work in areas torn by sectarian and ethnic violence. In Indonesia's Moluccan Islands, for example, where war between Muslims and Christians led to widespread displacement, JRS reaches out to all with a team composed of people from both faiths.
"Peace and reconciliation work is a mission we feel increasingly called to; all Christians are called to work for peace and refugees are a reminder of how important peace is for us in our lives, peace in our hearts, in our relationships with others and in the world," said Fr Magrina.
JRS found its workload in Asia substantially increased as a result of the Tsunami which hit the region nearly six months ago. The organisation has set up projects for Tsunami victims in war-torn Aceh in Indonesia and also in Sri Lanka. Apart from implementing these initiatives, JRS workers had to rebuild earlier projects destroyed by the Tsunami. "Schools and resettlement projects we had for returnees from India in Sri Lanka were ruined, so we had to start again from scratch," said Fr Magrina. He said JRS is also working to meet another enormous need created by the Tsunami, especially in Aceh: that of children orphaned by the natural disaster.
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