Locking baby Jesus in a cage and corralling the wise men into an area marked “deportation” is not what you’d expect a nativity scene to look like. Yet this year’s nativity scene at St Susanna’s parish in Massachusetts shows exactly that scene. Set beneath a sign that asks the question “Peace on Earth?”, the scene Read more
LOGOS, the Marist Youth Development agency in Auckland, on November 20 farewelled Tayla Fa’aofo prior to her departure to work at the Marist Asia Foundation in Ranong, Thailand. Tayla will be helping people from Myanmar who have come to Thailand either as refugees escaping conflict and living in refugee camps or as migrants seeking work. The farewell Read more
The Dalai Lama says refugees should return to their homelands. The spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhist people says in his opinion Europeans should be the sole decider of politics in Europe. He made his comments in Malmo, Sweden. Malmo is a city with a significant immigrant population. The Dalai Lama went on to say Read more
Venezuelans are arriving in Colombia as refugees with a few suitcases, malnourished children and reports of bare shelves in shops, supermarkets and pharmacies. The International Monetary Fund is predicting the inflation rate in Venezuela will top one million percent this year. If that happens, the monthly minimum wage will not buy enough flour for a Read more
Refugees receiving medical treatment in Papua New Guinea are no longer provided with interpreters, a Kurdish refugee says. Despite a promise that interpreters would be available, the English speaking Kurd said he had to volunteer to help patients and doctors communicate. Continue reading
Sixty-two per cent of refugees in Britain have been street homeless within the previous 12 months. Former Liberal Democrat Minister, Sarah Teather, who is the director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, says the asylum process in Britain is “deeply and profoundly flawed.” It is pushing people into destitution, she says. Speaking at the 40th conference Read more
Papal charity Caritas hosted a lunch in Rome with migrants and refugees on Tuesday. Caritas Rome hosts the city’s main soup kitchen and caters for tens of thousands of poor people. In hosting Tuesday’s lunch, Caritas hoped to foster a “culture of encounter” as this week is set aside as Caritas’s Global Action Week. It Read more
A group of North Koreans have been visiting Auckland to share their experiences at churches around the city, spreading the word about their escape. The group is part of a Christian mission led by a South Korean pastor Kwang Choi. Park Sung Il a former North Korean labourer, remembers clearly the hazardous journey he had Read more
Family pressures are familiar to us all, they are so much more acute here on the border. Jason is 17 years old, a Hispanic, born on the US side of the river, a spina bifida kid who lives in a wheel chair. His mum left him at birth. Magda his grandmother, adopted him as her Read more
Recently some 2000 members of the National Guard of the United States have been sent to the Southern Border with Mexico. The National Guard exists for the protection of the nation. They assist in times of natural disasters or respond to an armed threat from a foreign military force. None of that is happening at Read more