Europe must listen closely to refugees

Report calls on EU leaders to heed the concerns of refugees more closely

(Brussels, 01 August 2011) – The Jesuit Refugee Service Europe urges EU leaders and concerned citizens to listen more closely to refugees, in their annual report published today. The report covers JRS activities in 10 EU countries, in addition to Ukraine, Morocco and the Western Balkans region.
 

Over the last year JRS has endeavoured to get refugees’ voices heard by EU decision-makers and the broader public. Many are cut-off from society, shut away in detention centres or left to live homeless on the streets of European cities. The broader public’s unawareness of the injustices refugees face leaves their politicians with little incentive to push for rights-based policies.

“Refugees have been stripped of their humanity in the current European debate on asylum and refugee policy,” says Fr Luigi Romano, JRS Europe assistant director.

“They have been turned into units, mere statistics reflected on paper.”
 

“The fact is that refugees are human persons, with needs and aspirations that are utterly genuine. Asylum and refugee policies in Europe can only improve if decision-makers and the broader public listen closely to what refugees have to say.”

Catalin Albu of JRS Romania (left) with a group of refugees resettled from Kachin state, northern Burma (© Don Doll SJ)

The report offers country profiles that show how JRS national offices responded to refugees’ most pressing concerns in 2010. In Belgium, JRS visited over 600 persons in five detention centres, and in Germany JRS used legal aid to free almost 63 percent of persons in its caseload from wrongful detention. JRS Italy served meals to 350 people each week, and in Romania JRS housed 80 rejected asylum seekers who were living destitute.

During 2010 JRS Europe published two major studies. The first, based on interviews with 700 detained migrants, shows how detention leads to the systematic deterioration of individual physical and mental health – severe depression and anxiety, insomnia, appetite loss – even after just one month. The second, also based on migrants’ testimonies, reveals how state policies force migrants into destitution, leaving them without any safety net and no access to their fundamental rights.

“Refugees are not without a voice, and they certainly have something to say about policies that affect their day-to-day lives,” says Fr Romano.

On several occasions JRS brought refugees to European policymakers so they could explain their plight in person. Hassan Muhumet Saleban, an Eritrean refugee living in Malta, described to MEPs the harrowing boat journey he undertook from Libya to the European continent.

“It is death to go back home, and death to go to Europe,” said Mr Saleban, who endured several months in Libya’s medieval detention centres, and over one year in a Maltese detention centre.

“The willingness of refugees to share their lives is a testament to their innate humanity, their desire to be listened to and to have their protection needs seriously addressed," said Fr Romano.

"Listening to refugees is not only the humane thing to do, but it also leads to the development of good refugee policy.”

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Philip Amaral, Policy and Communications Officer

JRS Europe

Tel: +32 2 250 32 23; Mobile: +32 485 173 766; europe.advocacy@jrs.net; www.jrseurope.org

Twitter: www.twitter.com/JRSEurope