From August 26-September 7, 2009, a delegation from Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (MRS/ USCCB) visited the nations of Zimbabwe and South Africa to examine the situation of refugees in those two countries, with a special focus on Zimbabwean refugees. The delegation consisted of Most Reverend John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, Ms. Anastasia K. Brown, Director of Programs for MRS/USCCB, and Kevin Appleby, Director of Migration Policy and Public Affairs of MRS/USCCB. The MRS/USCCB delegation was part of a larger USCCB delegation, led by His Eminence Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C., and Most Reverend John Ricard, Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, that visited the two countries in a show of solidarity with the bishops of the countries.
This report contains findings and recommendations of the delegation with regard to Zimbabwean and other refugees in the region.