OUR WORK >> BY CONCERN

Migration, Refugees, IDP'S, Asylum Seekers and Violent Conflict

Refugees are a unique category of war victims, insomuch as they are forced by combat to flee the places where they habitually live, and to seek refuge in foreign countries. During times of conflict, people are brutally uprooted and forced to flee their homes, exposing them to danger and insecurity. Many face discrimination, hatred and violence in the countries where they must settle. Decisions leading to arbitrary detention frequently reflect hostile and xenophobic stereotypes and prejudices.

Concern for refugees must lead us to reaffirm and highlight universally recognised Human Rights, and to ask that the effective recognition of these rights be guaranteed to refugees.

Highlights

• Pax Christi has worked for years to change attitudes towards refugees. It does this both at the local grassroots level, and at the international level. It urges governments to treat asylum seekers fairly, while individual members of the organisation have visited refugee camps to provide basic necessities and training.

• Pax Christi has organised volunteer projects in the refugee camps of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sudan.

• Pax Christi has presented written and oral submissions on the situation of Iraqi refugees and IDPs at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

• Pax Christi has issued many statements and facilitated interventions on the rights of Palestinian refugees.

• Pax Christi has carried out interventions at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on the refugee crises worldwide, as well as advocacy work at the EU level concerning the European asylum and migration policy.

• Pax Christi International published: "The Humanitarian Outcome of Climate Change: Climate Refugees and the role of the European Union." This paper looks into the impact of climate change and displacement in Southeast Asia and Africa.