Relaunching the JCAP Migrant and Refugees Network

A new meeting in May has helped to reactivate this project to protect those people who emigrate or escape from conflicts

After three years of no actual movement, the Migrants and Refugees Network of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) finally had online gatherings in March for three days and in May for two days. Both meetings aimed to plan for the next five years. The sessions were used to confirm the mission received: to help build a better future with people on the move, particularly the migrants and refugees.

At the end of the gathering in March, the core team collected all the suggestions that were made, and integrated them with the results of an earlier survey we conducted to come up with a general action plan.

With a plan in hand, the group was divided on four thematic areas during our May meeting. These areas or goals are:

• To promote a culture of hospitality and reconciliation in society and our communities
• To support people who have been forcibly displaced to have safety, security, and decent livelihoods.
• To advocate to address the root causes and prevent more forced displacement.
• To capacitate the members of our network to grow in common discernment, mutual assistance, and collaborative action.

Each of these four areas will have its own action plan. Some of the actions identified include developing training and exchange programmes, identifying effective communications tools to strengthen our network, and enhancing our advocacy capacity.

Judging from our online gatherings, we saw that membership in our network has grown since our last in-person meeting in 2019. It was a big consolation for me to see the faces of our coordinators and the members of each province and region, most of whom I had not known before. There are many challenges in how we can keep working on the action plans, and in strengthening our capacities and resources.

There are still ways to go in discerning the needs of the people we wish to accompany, and what we are able to do as a group, but at least it was felt that the ship of the JCAP Migrants and Refugees Network has set sail on a pilgrimage into the deep waters of building a better future with people on the move.

This article was originally published on the JCAP website.