Towards the end of last year people from the three Anglican parishes of the Lambourn Valley came together to discuss issues from today’s world and how as Christians we should respond. The number one issue people asked to discuss was “Migration”. We began by checking out (via a quiz) whether we knew the true facts about the subject, and soon discovered that we all had something to learn. For example:
• There’s no such thing as an ‘illegal asylum seeker’. Under international law anyone has the right to apply for asylum in any country that has signed the 1951 Convention and remain there until the authorities have assessed their claim.
• A 2010 report from the Refugee Council found no evidence that respondents considered the UK welfare system to be more generous than that of other countries.
What has changed since 2010, of course, is the sheer number of those on the move. Millions of displaced persons each year flee their homes due to persecution, conflicts, generalised violence and human rights violations. Behind these figures are a record number of simultaneous civil wars, many of which have been continuing for a decade or more. There has been considerable discussion of an appropriate response by the British Government to what has rightly been described as a migration crisis, in particular with regards to Syrian refugees. In addition to the eight million displaced inside Syria itself, over four million have fled the country as refugees, most of whom are now in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
As well as providing a considerable sum to aid refugees in the region, so that displaced people can stay as close as possible to the homes from which they have been driven, the British Government has now pledged to bring in 20,000 Syria refugees to our country in the next five years. So why did the Archbishop of Canterbury describe this as “a slim response” and why did 84 bishops of the Church of England write to the Prime Minister last September asking for a minimum of 50,000 over the five-year period?
As the Archbishop of Canterbury pointed out in his New Year message: “Jesus was a refugee – fleeing as a baby with his parents, returning years later to a strange new ‘home’. He tells us to be those who welcome the alien and stranger, the poor and weak. As a nation we have always done so. In today’s world hospitality and love are our most formidable weapons against hatred and extremism.”
Archdeacon Christine Allsopp