Mr Elder said he was convinced the 40 migrants in Bibby Stockholm were suffering real conversions.
“Obviously we need to make sure that they believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and that they repent of their sins and also want to start a new life in the Church,” a- he declared.
“So those are the kinds of questions we ask them, and they have to give a public testimony, at their baptism, what they did in their native language, and it was translated into English. There were no qualms about the content of this testimony, which was clear and conclusive about their faith in Jesus Christ.
However, Tim Loughton, a member of the Home Affairs Committee and former minister, expressed concern that Christian conversion it had become a scamsaying there were cases in which some asylum seekers had tattoos of a crucifix to strengthen their claims.
“We need to put in place a much more rigorous vetting process for those who claim to have converted and to determine why it would be unsafe to send them back to their country of origin,” he said.
The Home Office said social workers had been trained to be able to establish the credibility of claims about religious beliefs, so that protection was only given to those who truly needed it.
The guidelines tell them to evaluate a claim “overall” and not take a priest’s word as “determinative.” A claimant’s participation in Church activities must be taken into account, as well as the time of his conversion, his knowledge of the faith and the opinions of other members of the congregation as to the authenticity of the conversion.
