25 years of JRS: building bridges where no one else is going

JRS Belgium — Jesuit Refugee Service — is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. As social initiative of the Jesuits in Belgium, the organization is part of the Ignatian family, just like UCSIA. JRS Belgium supports people living at the margins of our society: every week, staff members visit people in administrative detention centres for migrants, seek alternatives to detention and work to raise broader societal awareness through their advocacy programmes.

To mark this anniversary, we spoke with Jörg Gebhard, director of JRS Belgium, about the organization’s mission, its work on the ground and his views on the current migration debate.