Astalli Centre JRS is headquartered in Rome and includes eight Jesuit Refugee Service centres throughout Italy. The Rome centre was founded in 1981, a year after the international JRS movement was initiated there. It has since gained seven affiliates: Palermo (2003), Catania (1999), Trento (2005), Vicenza (1990), Naples (1990), Milan (1994) and Padua (2014) with a combined staff of 49 and 486 volunteers in 2013.[1]
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is an international Catholic organization that aids refugees, forcibly displaced peoples, and asylum seekers. JRS operates at national and regional levels. Founded in November 1980 as a work of the Society of Jesus, JRS was officially registered on 19 March 2000 in Vatican City as a foundation. The impetus to found JRS came from the then father general of the Jesuits, Pedro Arrupe, who was inspired to action by the plight of Vietnamese boat people. JRS's international headquarters are located in Rome at the Society's General Curia. The International Director is Rev. Tom Smolich, SJ.
Palermo is a city of Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Catania is the second largest city of Sicily after Palermo located on the east coast facing the Ionian Sea. It is the capital of the Metropolitan City of Catania, one of the ten biggest cities in Italy, and the seventh largest metropolitan area in Italy. The population of the city proper is 320,000 while the population of the city's metropolitan area, Metropolitan City of Catania, stood at 1,116,168 inhabitants.
The 2014 Astilli report on the eight centres tells of 27,830 applications for asylum in Italy, of the 42,925 reaching Italian shores, and of an in-hospitable attitude of Italy toward Syrians who then seek asylum elsewhere. In 2013 the Astalli centres in Italy served 37,000 people with its 486 volunteers and 49 on the staffs. These centres also tried to reach out to the more than 2,500 homeless refugees living on the fringes of society and there were 713 victims of torture, violence, or sexual abuse supported by the centres.[1] The Centre's definition of a refugee is broader than that of the Geneva Convention and includes victims of natural disasters and of wrongful government policies.[2] The chief problems encountered by long-term refugees was employment. The Centre's advocacy has mainly involved establishing safe corridors, an end to refoulement, and dignified reception centres for innocent victims of war. Through the Astalli centres more than 18,700 students in 13 cities were educated on inter-religious dialogue and the right to asylum.
The Mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino, awarded the Rome Prize for Peace and Humanitarian Action to the volunteers of Centro Astalli for the work they have carried out over the years.[1][3]
Ignazio Roberto Maria Marino is an Italian transplant surgeon who was Mayor of Rome from 2013 to 2015.
Headquarters in Rome
In 2013 Pope Francis visited the Astalli Centre in Rome, delivering an address to its volunteers[4] and stopping by its soup kitchen that serves about 425 meals each day.[2] This brought an international spotlight to the Astalli Centre mission[5] which has also drawn a visit from the Italian president.[6]
Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, the first to visit and hold papal mass in the Arabian Peninsula, and the first pope from outside Europe since the Syrian Gregory III, who reigned in the 8th century.
The Rome Centre has four reception centres linked to the Interior Ministry,[7] an Italian language school, a health facility catering to victims of torture, and an offering of legal counselling services. In 2012 it welcomed 21,000 people from over a dozen countries. It also sponsors inter-religious and cultural events, and awareness raising programs in schools.[2] Many of these activities are also carried out at the other seven centres.[8]
In October 2017 the director of the Centre received press coverage for his denunciation of the European Union for what he described as the illegal deportation of refugees from Afghanistan.[9] The same month Centro Astalli took part in an international symposium in Rome on "Religion and Responses to Migrants and Refugees in Europe", which was convened to facilitate the work it is doing. This includes a “Communities of Hospitality” project whereby 27 religious congregations throughout Italy have welcomed refugees into their convents and houses,[10] something Pope Francis had commended during his visit to the Centre.[11]
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2 (1,728,099 sq mi) and an estimated population of about 513 million. The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where members have agreed to act as one. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market, enact legislation in justice and home affairs and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development. For travel within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished. A monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002 and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency.
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in South and Central Asia. Afghanistan is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east; Iran in the west; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north; and in the far northeast, China. Its territory covers 652,000 square kilometers (252,000 sq mi) and much of it is covered by the Hindu Kush mountain range, which experiences very cold winters. The north consists of fertile plains, whilst the south-west consists of deserts where temperatures can get very hot in summers. Kabul serves as the capital and its largest city.
References
1 2 3 centroastalli.it/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/JRS-Italy-Annual-Report.doc Astalli Centre, JRS Italy, Annual Report 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
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