HISTORY

Thirty years ago, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, then Superior General of the Society of Jesus, was moved by the perilous journeys to exile of the Vietnamese boat people.
 

"..our life has meaning only in the service of others" - Fr Pedro Arrupe, SJ

   quoted from "Justice with Faith Today"

Although the Vietnam War had ended in 1975, it was not until 1979 that great numbers of people began to leave the country and seek refugee elsewhere through clandestine, risky journeys by sea.  At that time Fr. Arrupe appealed to Jesuit major superiors for practical assistance.

The spontaneous and generous 'first wave of action' provoked him to reflect on how much more the Society of Jesus could do if its responses to this, and to other contemporary crises of forced human displacement, were planned and coordinated.

From that initial sentiment has grown a world-wide service to forcibly displaced people. On 14 November 1980, Fr Arrupe announced the  (JRS). 

JRS has its International Headquarters in Rome. Today JRS' outreach to refugees and displaced people stretches across ten geographic regions worldwide such as Africa, Asia Pacific (Indonesia and Thailand), South Asia ( Sri Lanka, Nepal, and India), Europe ( Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo), Latin America and the Caribbean.