Judges in the United Kingdom have expressed concern that religious leaders are being misled or “duped” by asylum seekers who convert to Christianity to avoid deportation.
A series of court rulings reveal that investigators question whether clergy and lay leaders did enough to examine the motivations of purported converts before supporting their asylum requests.
Immigration Court Decisions Reviewed by The telegraph show that the Interior Ministry has repeatedly questioned the depth with which religious leaders investigate the intentions of migrants who converted from Islam to Christianity.
Allegations of religious conversion can help strengthen asylum claims if it means they will be deported to their home country, where they risk persecution because of their new professed faith.
The report comes as the Church of England has come under scrutiny in recent weeks over whether its leaders support “false” asylum applications.
The case of Abdul Ezedi, who was granted asylum after converting to Christianity, has prompted a reassessment of clergy involvement in asylum applications. Ezedi is linked to the recent Clapham chemical attack in southwest London. Ezedi is still on the run after the attack which seriously injured a woman and her children. He had claimed that his conversion to Christianity put him in danger in Afghanistan.
Judges now appear to be questioning the ability of religious leaders to accurately vouch for the faith of asylum seekers, particularly when language barriers exist.
In two of the cases examined by The Telegraph, judges questioned how local church leaders could vouch for the faith of asylum seekers from Iran and Iraq.
In one case, a vicar claimed to have spoken “in depth” with an Iranian national he supported who was baptized five weeks after arriving in Britain. However, the Iranian told authorities that he never discussed his faith with the pastor and that their interactions were limited to greetings, broken English and hand signals.
In another case reported by The Telegraph, an immigration judge determined that a young Iranian migrant had misled a pastoral assistant at an evangelical church in Wiltshire. The migrant’s claim that he had converted from Islam to Christianity before arriving in Britain has been deemed “implausible”.
Despite the pastoral assistant’s authentic testimony regarding his belief in the migrant’s conversion, the judge observed a significant level of unqualified acceptance of his belief. Notably, the migrant could not even identify the church by name.
In a statement Last Wednesday, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, a senior Church of England cleric, said the “role of churches and faith groups in the asylum system” had been misinterpreted.
“Churches across the country are getting involved in caring for vulnerable people from all backgrounds,” Welby said. “For refugees and asylum seekers, we simply follow the Bible’s teaching of caring for the stranger.”
“It is up to the government to protect our borders and the courts to judge asylum cases,” he added. “The Church is called to love mercy and to do justice. I encourage everyone to avoid irresponsible and inaccurate comments – and let’s remember that at the heart of this conversation are vulnerable people whose lives are precious in the eyes of God.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord George Carey, who served as a senior cleric in the Church of England between 1991 and 2002, has criticized current Church leaders for their approach to migration.
In a opinion article for the Sunday Telegraph, he accused bishops in the House of Lords of neglecting the effects of mass migration on British culture and infrastructure.
“I was therefore surprised by the Church’s timid response to this latest controversy. When you raise your head above the parapet, you must expect to be criticized,” Carey wrote. “I know I’m going to forget about this article. But the Church hierarchy seems to deny that there is a problem, or anything questionable regarding their own actions and statements.”
“One of the consequences of this is that churches are accused of boosting the credentials of asylum seekers and naively accepting insincere conversions,” he continued. “This is not the case, because it is up to the Interior Ministry and the judiciary to apply the rules on asylum, and not the Church.”
Carey deplored the Church of England for providing information on how clergy can “mount a personal campaign” if an application is refused.
“It doesn’t provide much guidance on how to discern whether these conversions are genuine, lasting, and life-changing,” he wrote. “While it is true that most clergy are experienced enough to deal with these kinds of pastoral situations, the Church should do more to emphasize the rigor of preparation for baptism. What’s really depressing is that Christian converts in some countries are among the most numerous. “
Reverend Matthew Firth, who once led a parish in the north of England before joining the Free Church of England, said: The telegraph that the Church of England has become a “conveyor belt” of baptisms of asylum seekers. He claims to have personally encountered around twenty cases of immigrants who sought to be baptized in his church to support their appeals after the failure of their asylum application.
“This is not direct wrongdoing on the part of the Church, but complicity, which is not right,” Firth said.
Carey said the intensity and fervor of the Church of England opposition to the Rwandan partnership project for migration and economic development troubled him.
The Rwanda Plan is a political agreement between the United Kingdom and Rwanda. Announced in April 2022, the plan aims to deter illegal immigration and human trafficking by relocating some asylum seekers arriving in the UK via unauthorized routes to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed .
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