Astalli Annual Report: the pedagogy of the gaze, medicine against barbarism
Centro Astalli, the Italian branch of the Jesuit Refugee Service, presented the Annual Report 2025: a tool to understand through data and statistics what are the main nationalities of the more than 24,000 refugees and asylum seekers assisted, 11,000 of whom in Rome, who turned to the Jesuit Refugee Service in Italy during the year, what difficulties they encounter in the path to protection recognition and access to reception or inclusion paths.
During the presentation event, held in Rome on 8 April 2025, at the Congregation Hall of the General Curia of the Society of Jesus, and broadcast live on Centro Astalli’s YouTube channel, Fr. Camillo Ripamonti, president of the Centro Astalli, presented the data emerging from the Report, which tell of a reality that, thanks to the over 800 volunteers working in the 8 territorial offices (Rome, Bologna, Catania, Grumo Nevano, Padova, Palermo, Vicenza, Trento), adapts to respond to the social and legislative changes of a country that finds it difficult to give due assistance to those fleeing war and persecution and seeking protection.
Centro Astalli’s Annual Report 2025 highlights a picture of growing complexity and vulnerability of the refugees assisted, in a context characterised by increasingly restrictive migration policies and the difficulties of access to an adequate reception system that is not always up to the task it is called to do.
65,581 meals were distributed at the canteen in Via degli Astalli, 1,114 people were hosted in host structures, of whom, 227 in Rome, 10,044 people received healthcare assistance at the Sa.Mi.Fo. centre, 1,161 people turned to social accompaniment services, including 710 who requested accompaniment to the digital services of the Public Administration. While 38,700 male and female students were met within the framework of the awareness-raising projects Finestre and Incontri.
The event opened with the testimony of Khanum Yehoian, originally from Armenia, fleeing the war in Ukraine. This was followed by Cardinal Baldassare Reina, Vicar of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome, in dialogue with Annalisa Cuzzocrea, journalist for La Repubblica, expressed words of encouragement to the Centro Astalli and emphasised that “We dreamed of a great Europe, of peoples, of the encounter between cultures, and today we find ourselves witnessing something different. The answer is not resignation, a sin against hope. It is a moral imperative to return to the sources of humanity. As long as the pedagogy of glances is lacking, we will continue to think in terms of strategies that have only the value of economics and profit. Instead, we must create a culture of peace and respect for the dignity of every person without distinction”.
Material from the event:
– Speech by Fr. Camillo Ripamonti
– Summary of Annual Report 2025
– Summary of data from Annual Report 2025
– Intro “Refugees: the long view of rights“
Download the Annual Report 2025
Press Release 07.04.2025
