EVERYBODY'S CHALLENGE - Jesuit Refugee Service | USA

The personal story of refugees is one of suffering. Many can tell of
rape, robbery, and murder as they fled from their homes. Many tell
also of sickness, hunger and exposure. Where they live in camps,
their story is often one of intimidation by faction leaders, other refugees,
and by forces of the host country. They live in dependence for
their food, for shelter and for medical care. Their memories commonly
do not sustain but torment them.
The experience of refugees cannot be described simply in terms
of personal suffering. For their story is one which involves massive
evil. This evil is at many levels. It is manifest in the exploitation,
robbery and abuse of refugees by those who prey on them. It is less
manifest but strongly present in the treatment of refugees by governments,
who create the conditions which produce refugees and use
them as pawns on the larger international board. Evil is most sadly
apparent in the corruption which life as a refugee so commonly
induces – by seeking one’s own advancement at the expense of others
or by despair and apathy. In the world of refugees, the goodness
of the human spirit is locked in an unequal struggle with evil.
The story of refugees is one of injured human dignity, of suffering
and diminishment. The injustice of the societies and world order
which produce refugees and devise ways of handling them must
frame the perspective of any group which works with refugees... the
task of JRS has been to accompany refugees in their suffering while
addressing its causes without flinching.
Mark Raper SJ, Exile and Solidarity, a Global Panorama, April 1994
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