THE attack on a mother and her children at Clapham last week was shocking and brutal. Like others in churches across the country, I have prayed for those affected and hope to see the person responsible arrested and brought to justice quickly. Because the alleged perpetrator has been reported as someone seeking asylum in the UK. due to conversion to Christianitysome, including senior politicians, have questioned the role of churches and other faiths in supporting those who seek our help and protection here.
It is important to emphasize from the outset that this is the role of the Ministry of the Interiorand not churches, to evaluate and verify these claims.
I myself arrived in this country as a refugee from Iran, following the events of the 1979 Revolution during which the small Anglican community experienced much persecution and my brother was murdered. I know that behind every statistic there is a human story and I have a sense of the real trauma that many asylum seekers have experienced.
Christians are called to follow the example of Jesus who, throughout the Bible, focuses his love and care on the most vulnerable and marginalized people in society.
This week, commentators have largely ignored the fact that churches do this by helping disadvantaged people from all backgrounds – including asylum seekers – to eat, sleep, pray, find shelter and be connected to communities. services that can support them. As a Christian leader, I make no apologies for our involvement with people who are often deeply vulnerable and traumatized.
But churches have no power to circumvent the government’s obligation to consider and approve applications – the responsibility lies with the Home Office.
It is the call of the clergy to baptize and bring people to God. When a prospective asylum seeker prepares for baptism, advice given to clergy includes the need to exercise discernment: “to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Clergy must be sure that those seeking baptism fully understand what it means. »
Religious ministers of all faiths may occasionally, after careful assessment, provide statements of support to people seeking asylum, but it is wrong to view this as a a kind of magic ticket. The idea that a person can be fast-tracked through the asylum system, with the aid and encouragement of the Church, is simply inaccurate. Home Office guidance states that “ultimately, evidence, even from a senior member of the Church, is not conclusive”. According to a recent Upper Tribunal decision, “the weight to be given to such evidence rests with the judicial investigator”.
Globally, the persecution of Christians is on the rise. In 2021, the Pew Institute said that 190 of 198 countries and territories analyzed saw religious groups experience at least one form of harassment. The report by the current Bishop of Winchester, which remains current government policy, cites figures estimating that a third of the world’s population suffers from religious persecution in one form or another and that 80 percent of believers persecuted in the world are Christians.
The responsibility for assessing an individual’s risk of persecution because of their faith lies with the Home Office. Christian leaders have worked with authorities to improve understanding of faith-based persecution and Christian identity, and we will continue to do so. We also offered to work with the government to ensure that return policies are designed so that they are safe and more likely to be effective in the long term.
The bishops of the Lords have always supported the government’s aim of stop people crossing the Channel in small boats. During the recent debate on the security of the Rwanda Bill, the Archbishop of Canterbury said it was a disagreement over means rather than ends. It is the role of the Lords to improve and amend, not to block, and that is what we are committed to doing through cross-party amendments to the Bill. The scourge of illicit human trafficking must end, but this cannot be done by vilifying those who, unfortunately, already bear such a high material and financial cost.
We share the former Home Secretary’s concern about the need to ‘break crime’, but we question the need to do so by violating international and domestic law. Alternatives to the relocation of our care for those seeking refuge have been proposed numerous times and by credible voices.
We are not politicians and we know that participating in a political debate can be deadly. But those who claimed a link between the abuse of our asylum system and the action of the bishops in Parliament is simply wrong. It is saddening to see this implied by former holders of senior ministerial positions, who had the opportunity but did not seek to raise these concerns with senior clergy before.
The plight of refugees around the world is a shared responsibility that we must shoulder together – locally, nationally and globally. We must do this not by demonizing those who arrive on our shores, but by recognizing our common humanity and, as Christians would say, seeing in others the face of Christ.
Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani is the Bishop of Chelmsford
