WASHINGTON (OSV News): A pause on US foreign aid could harm efforts to combat Christian persecution around the globe, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, said.
Shortly after his second inauguration, US president, Donald Trump, signed an executive order pausing most US foreign assistance. The order remains the subject of litigation, but nongovernmental organisations carrying out foreign aid work received stop-work orders. Among them was Jesuit Refugee Service/USA [JRS/USA], which works with refugees and other forcibly displaced people.
Kelly Ryan, president of JRS/USA’s who previously worked in international humanitarian law and policy across Democratic and Republican presidential administrations, observed that the group has been a recipient of funds from the US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration [PRM].
“We really believe that our activities are lifesaving and critical,” Ryan said. “And so we’ve been looking at ways to keep our activities going while the pause is happening, and we’ve also applied for lifesaving exemptions to try and get the monies to the recipients and to the offices so that they can carry on their work.”
The pause impacts nine of the countries in which JRS/USA operates, leading to layoffs in some cases “in order to comply with the stop-work order,” she said. She added that of February 26 the agency was notified that five of their nine cooperative agreements with the PRM had been terminated, including programmes in Thailand, Iraq, Chad, Ethiopia and Uganda.
…so we’ve been looking at ways to keep our activities going while the pause is happening, and we’ve also applied for lifesaving exemptions to try and get the monies to the recipients and to the offices so that they can carry on their work
Kelly Ryan
“But we’re scrambling and trying to be judicious in being able to send resources now to keep those lifesaving activities going,” Ryan said, citing particular concern about the group’s work with refugees in South Africa, and Yazidis and Christians in Iraq who have been persecuted by ISIS.
Earlier this year, the Christian nonprofit, Open Doors, released its annual persecution report, which estimated that more than 380 million Christians around the world face high levels of religious persecution. A previous Global Citizen report in 2017 said religious persecution tops the list of reasons why people become refugees.
The Open Doors report identified North Korea as the top Christian-persecuting country. Other key offenders included Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Iraq and Syria among others. Jesuit Refugee Service/USA operates in or near those countries, as well as others where anti-Christian persecution in particular takes place. In total, its website shows it has a presence in 57 countries.
Ryan pointed to Trump’s February 6 executive order aimed at rooting out alleged anti-Christian bias in the federal government as a sign the administration considers persecution on account of religion to be “very, very harmful.”
But we’re scrambling and trying to be judicious in being able to send resources now to keep those lifesaving activities going
Kelly Ryan
Ryan said, “I have long thought that religious persecution is one of the most dangerous and insidious human rights violation. So, I definitely agree with the Trump administration that religious persecution is a very serious evil, and we should do everything in our power to advocate for and offer help to Christian brothers and sisters and religious minorities in general.”
Ryan said that while JRS/USA serves people in need without regard for race, religion, ethnicity or other factors, some of the programmes impacted by the cut are designed to combat anti-Christian persecution.me
“I hope as they look at and review programmes that they will prioritise ramping up or reopening” them, Ryan said.
“So we can’t end persecution overnight, but the United States has incredibly powerful foreign assistance tools at its disposal that it should deploy,” she said.
But Ryan expressed optimism that secretary of state, Marco Rubio, could help resolve the issue.
Rubio has long been an advocate of international religious freedom, she said, and “I don’t see any evidence that he’s going to turn from that.”
