The devastating picture of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria, lying face down in the muddy waters of the Rio Grande jolted the nation. We could no longer look away. The tragedy of a father and daughter from El Salvador drowning while he tried to save her from being swept away by Read more
Europe could become ‘Muslim or African’ if migrants are not returned to their home countries, the Dalai Lama warns. The Dalai Lama (83), the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, has been living as a refugee in India since fleeing Tibet in 1959. In a recent interview with the BBC, he opened up about his views on Read more
“The signs of meanness we see around us heighten our fear of ‘the other,’ the unknown, the marginalized, the foreigner,” and thus many migrants seeking a better life end up as recipients of this meanness, said Pope Francis in his recently released 2019 World Day of Migrants and Refugees message. The Holy Father warned that Read more
Papua New Guinea’s (PNG’s) bishops are urging the government to do more to help resettle the country’s refugees and asylum seekers. Besides pushing for a definitive end to the detention of refugees on Manus Island, the bishops are also highlighting the plight of various groups in the country who have not gained refugee status. In Read more
Sikka is a teacher at Henderson Primary School but spreads herself across the community as a volunteer, mentoring high school girls and teaching yoga classes to refugee women on Fridays. In between, she’s organising workshops to empower refugee and migrant women as the founder of Our Stories on Plate, an initiative to address the realities of Read more
Father Mick Kelly, the Sydney-born priest and journalist who works with and helps about 400 Pakistani refugee families in Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo by James Massola) Mick Kelly remembers the phone call from his friend in Pakistan as if it was yesterday. “He asked me to help out this one guy who was fleeing Pakistan, and on Read more
The leader of a church which helped a family settle in Timaru after they fled their war-torn home is not surprised the town has been chosen as a new refugee settlement location. Continue reading
On December 10-11, the United Nations will convened at an intergovernmental conference in Marrakech, Morocco to sign the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), establishing global agreement on a common approach toward international migration. In 2016, the 193 members of the UN – including New Zealand – agreed unanimously that protecting those Read more
An Algerian man’s death at a UK detention centre won’t be the last, says Beatrice Grasso, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) UK’s detention outreach manager. “This is not the first death in detention this year, and I fear it will not be the last time something like this happens. “It is a testament to the Read more
Thousands of refugees have died or gone missing along on their way to the US via Mexico. The Associated Press says the estimated 4,000 Latin American migrants reported missing or dead is likely low as bodies may be lost in the desert, or relatives may not report missing loved ones who were migrating illegally. Read Read more