Catholic NGO warns foreign aid pause could harm efforts combating Christian persecution

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- A pause on U.S. foreign aid could harm efforts to combat Christian persecution around the globe, a Catholic NGO told OSV News.

Shortly after his second inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order pausing most U.S. foreign assistance. That order remains the subject of litigation, but NGOs, or nongovernmental organizations, carrying out U.S. foreign aid work received stop-work orders. Among them was Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, which works with refugees and other forcibly displaced people.

Kelly Ryan, JRS/USA's president who previously worked in international humanitarian law and policy across Democratic and Republican presidential administrations, told OSV News the group has been a recipient of funds from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

"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. But as of Feb. 26, JRS/USA was notified that five of their nine cooperative agreements with PRM have been terminated, including programs in Thailand, Iraq, Chad, Ethiopia and Uganda, she said.

"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, China, Iraq and Syria. JRS/USA operates in or near those countries, as well as others where anti-Christian persecution in particular takes place. In total, JRS/USA's website shows it has a presence in 57 countries.

Ryan pointed to Trump's Feb. 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."

"I have long thought that religious persecution is one of the most dangerous and insidious human rights violation," Ryan said, adding, "So, I definitely agree with the Trump administration that religious persecution is a very serious evil, and we should do everything in our in our power to advocate for and offer help to Christian brothers and sisters and 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 programs impacted by the cut are designed to combat anti-Christian persecution.

"I hope as they look at and review programs that they will prioritize ramping up or reopening" such programs, Ryan said.

"So for example, Nicaraguans who are priests are persecuted in Nicaragua, (and) there's religious persecution in China of tens of millions of people," she 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."

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."