Christian concern at Blair comments on deportation
-18/05/06
Christians have expressed
Christian concern at Blair comments on deportation
-18/05/06
Christians have expressed concern over Tony Blair’s statements at Prime Minister’s Question Time this week regarding the deportation of foreign criminals.
The Prime Minister said foreign prisoners would be sent back to countries that were previously considered to be unsafe for deportation.
He cast aside previous government commitments not to send people to states where they could face inhumane treatment.
Of the 1,023 foreign national prisoners who were not considered for deportation having served prison sentences, 58 were from Iraq, 42 from Algeria, 19 from Iran and 48 from Somalia. All four are countries to which British courts are reluctant to deport, having grave reservations about human rights abuses.
Anthea Cox, Coordinating Secretary for the Methodist Church said; “Whilst concern about crime should be taken seriously, we have a moral obligation not to send people back to regimes where they will suffer gravely and could even face execution. We are seriously concerned about the implications of Mr. Blair’s comments for human rights.
“Our criminal justice system sentences people according to their crimes, not on the basis of nationality. We need a sense of proportion and to look at each case individually – sending people back to unsafe situations would be disproportionate punishment in most cases.
“News stories and political responses such as this one from the Prime Minister unfortunately spread the idea that immigrants cannot be trusted – we have the opportunity and responsibility to take in people who need our help and to educate one another against prejudice.”
The Conservatives also accused Tony Blair of being disingenuous with the promise and questioned whether they would deport prisoners to a country where they could be executed.
The Prime Minister said at Prime Ministerís Questions that there should be a ìpresumption of automatic deportationî in the ìvast bulkî of such foreign national prisoner cases.
He added: ìThose people, in my view, should be deported irrespective of any claim that they have that the country to which they are going back may not be safe.î
But judges are refusing to send people back to states where they may be at risk of torture and death.
Christian concern at Blair comments on deportation
-18/05/06
Christians have expressed concern over Tony Blair’s statements at Prime Minister’s Question Time this week regarding the deportation of foreign criminals.
The Prime Minister said foreign prisoners would be sent back to countries that were previously considered to be unsafe for deportation.
He cast aside previous government commitments not to send people to states where they could face inhumane treatment.
Of the 1,023 foreign national prisoners who were not considered for deportation having served prison sentences, 58 were from Iraq, 42 from Algeria, 19 from Iran and 48 from Somalia. All four are countries to which British courts are reluctant to deport, having grave reservations about human rights abuses.
Anthea Cox, Coordinating Secretary for the Methodist Church said; “Whilst concern about crime should be taken seriously, we have a moral obligation not to send people back to regimes where they will suffer gravely and could even face execution. We are seriously concerned about the implications of Mr. Blair’s comments for human rights.
“Our criminal justice system sentences people according to their crimes, not on the basis of nationality. We need a sense of proportion and to look at each case individually – sending people back to unsafe situations would be disproportionate punishment in most cases.
“News stories and political responses such as this one from the Prime Minister unfortunately spread the idea that immigrants cannot be trusted – we have the opportunity and responsibility to take in people who need our help and to educate one another against prejudice.”
The Conservatives also accused Tony Blair of being disingenuous with the promise and questioned whether they would deport prisoners to a country where they could be executed.
The Prime Minister said at Prime Ministerís Questions that there should be a ìpresumption of automatic deportationî in the ìvast bulkî of such foreign national prisoner cases.
He added: ìThose people, in my view, should be deported irrespective of any claim that they have that the country to which they are going back may not be safe.î
But judges are refusing to send people back to states where they may be at risk of torture and death.