The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) Office for Migrants and Refugees held a recollection day for the staff and volunteers of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) to reflect on pastoral care for migrants and refugees in South Africa and to strengthen working relations between the associate bodies of the SACBC.

“This recollection day is meant to build capacity and strengthen pastoral care for migrants and refugees, especially for the JRS staff and volunteers,” said the Coordinator of the SACBC Migrants and Refugees office.

The meeting held at Lumko Retreat Centre saw the participation of over 40 JRS staff members was also an “opportunity to share experiences on the responses to the plight of migrants, and advocacy work,” added Sr. Maria de Lurdes Lodi Rissini during the Tuesday, June 20 interview with the SACBC Communications Office.

She continued, “Many of them (JRS staff) don’t know about the SACBC migrants and refugees’ office, so I think today was a great opportunity for me to share with them. For them to better understand the kind of work we are doing in the Episcopal conference, here in the region.”

During the meeting held on the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) World Refugee Day, observed annually on June 20, the JRS staff members together with the Coordinator for the SACBC Migrants and Refugees Office “shared knowledge on decision making and on how to better respond to the plight of refugees” in South Africa.

In a separate interview with the SACBC communications office, the Coordinator for the JRS Pastoral Care said the meeting was an opportunity to “collaborate with the SACBC, to learn from the SACBC” as the conference also assists refugees “at the parish level with online registration” for those in need of documents.

According to UNHCR statistics, out of the nine countries the agency serves in Africa, South Africa hosts the most refugees, “with 250,250 refugees and asylum-seekers living in the country”, hailing from “Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Somalia, and Zimbabwe.”

In the Tuesday, June 20 interview, Fr Patrick Mphepo said the refugee policy in South Africa is “complicated in the sense that the refugees here in South Africa are not staying in camps like in other countries, here they are integrated into the society and the system itself, is a bit complex in the sense that It’s so difficult to know who a refugee is and who a migrant is and who is an asylum seeker.”

The SACBC Migrants and Refugees Office together with the JRS, Caritas, The Catholic Parliamentary Office, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), and other associate bodies assist refugees in South Africa by providing pastoral care, advocacy, and where possible with the asylum process. For Fr Mphepo it is important that both offices work together in assisting migrants and refugees.

“The way forward from here for us is to continue this kind of collaboration, we need to do more partnership together. We are all working for the common good of humanity,” said Fr Mphepo.