C of E suggests church members should take asylum seekers into their homes
-22/03/05
In a move that will be welcomed by radical Christians, the Church of England has called on parishioners to offer hospitality to refugees and asylum seekers and to fight for their cause.
It cames afer church leaders held an emergency debate at the weekend calling on the Government to give more humane treatment to asylum-seekers and stop treating them as ëpolitical footballsí in the run up to the general election.
The new report called A Place of Refuge, drawn up at the request of the general synod, suggested that churchgoers should consider allowing asylum seekers to stay in their spare rooms overnight if they were short of accommodation.
Many churches, most notably in the diocese of Leeds and Ripon, have already been providing support for asylum-seekers with food, accommodation and legal representation.
A catholic priest also recently risked jail to prevent an asylum seeker being placed in detention when police arrived at his church to take her away.
The report saays: “The UK churches have an inescapable duty to stand alongside asylum seekers and refugees. The problems they face and the negative attitudes they encounter must be challenged through prayer and action … those who initially arrive in need will contribute much to the UK – economically, socially, culturally, spiritually and personally and, as we hope to receive, we should continue to give.”
The report argues that many assertions by opponents of immigration – that asylum seekers are alternatively lazy, or taking British jobs, that Britain is a soft touch and that they get better housing and benefits than indigenous claimants – are false.
It cites claims by the Refugee Council to the Commons work and pensions select committee in 2003 that 56% of asylum seekers have a qualification, a third to degree level and that 65% speak at least two languages.
The report quotes the same source saying that it had registered 920 doctors, 150 nurses and more than 100 dentists among refugees that year. It estimates that refugees contributed £2.6bn to the Treasury in 2000, 10 times more than was given in support.
The Rt Rev Kenneth Stevenson, Bishop of Portsmouth, said: “Behind the headlines are real people at their most vulnerable. In the clamour for cheap votes, there is a distinct lack of compassion for those who are genuine.”
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales recentlypublished a guide to the Catholic Church’s teaching on refugees and migrants, following a statement by the Catholic Bishop of Lancaster who said that he was scandalised by the treatment of asylum seekers.
Catholic bishops have also suggested care for asylum seekers should be a key election issue.
The Churches Commission for Racial Justice has continued to point out that “time and again stories are told of how the dignity and humanity of asylum seekers is continually denied by targeting them as scapegoats.” A few months ago it strongly criticised Michael Howard’s pledge, to pull Britain out of the Refugee Convention should the Conservatives be returned to government, as both ‘alarming and dangerous’.