Raising Awareness
Hope08
We are delighted that Lizzy Sharman has written an article for the Hope08 website on asylum issues and some of the responses by the churches and charity sector in Birmingham. This is an excellent 18-page resource and includes an interview with Ginnie Odetayo (a volunteer befriender with Restore) and comments from Shari Brown (Project Manager) and Jeremy Thompson (Befriending Co-ordinator.)
There is no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker.
Claiming asylum is a legal right. If a person has been persecuted in their home country and fears that persecution would continue if they returned there, then under the UN Convention on Refugees signed in 1951, they can apply for asylum in UK (or in many other countries).
It is important that we clearly understand that a refugee is someone who has been persecuted or who fears persecution.
Who is a refugee? A refugee is a person who ‘owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country ...'
1951 UN Convention on Refugees.
Who is an asylum seeker? ‘An asylum seeker is someone who is fleeing persecution in their homeland, has arrived in another country, made themselves known to the authorities and exercised the legal right to apply for asylum.’
‘The truth about asylum’, Refugee Council.
But until that application is considered and determined they are given the label ‘asylum seeker’ rather than ‘refugee’. They wait with great uncertainty for the Home Office to decide whether their story will be believed or not and whether or not they will be granted refugee status.
We need to remember that for many, it is very difficult to get supportive evidence from home.
Who can claim asylum?
A family arriving in the UK after the father has been imprisoned and tortured in Congo Brazzaville due to his membership of and active involvement in an opposition political party could claim asylum.
Iraqi Kurds who fled to the UK due to Saddam Hussein’s persecution of that ethnic group over many years could claim asylum.
Christians from Iran who are persecuted for their religious belief or for their conversion from Islam to Christianity could claim asylum.
(Someone who comes to UK from an Eastern European Union nation, e.g. Poland, purely to seek employment should not claim asylum. They are not coming because they have been persecuted. They are not refugees or asylum seekers, they are economic migrants. They are still entitled to come to the UK but for different reasons.)
Why was the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees introduced?
On 28th July 1951, when the Convention was adopted, the world was recovering from a deeply traumatising and destructive period of global war and human rights violations on a horrendous scale.
The inspiration for the Convention was the strong international concern to ensure that the disregard for human life, the displacement and the persecution of the war years - especially the Holocaust - would not be repeated.
What does the Bible say?
We believe that the themes of welcoming the stranger and giving justice to the oppressed are threads that run right through the Bible. Key biblical characters were oppressed or persecuted.
Moses, who received God’s laws, was himself persecuted. When he was a baby his family hid him when Pharaoh gave an order to kill all the Hebrew baby boys. The Hebrews were persecuted for many, many years.
Jesus himself identified with the persecuted and those seeking asylum. It was part of his life experience. Mirroring the Moses story, Jesus escaped another genocide when Mary and Joseph took him to Egypt to escape the terror of Herod’s rule. The first Christmas was not marked by tinsel and glitter but by a bloody massacre. But Jesus was not only persecuted as a child, but as an adult for his teaching and claims - persecution that resulted in his death.
Scripture verses
Here are a selection of verses from the Bible that show God’s heart for the marginalised, particularly the stranger or alien, who in our context in Birmingham today, include refugees and asylum seekers.
‘Do not ill-treat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.’
Exodus 22 v 21
‘And you are to have the same law for the alien and the native born. I am the Lord your God.’
Leviticus 24 v 22
‘For the Lord your God, is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10 vs. 17 — 19
‘You hear O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them and listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.’
Psalm 10 vs 17 and 18
‘God upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.’
Psalm 146:7
‘The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.’
Proverbs 29:7
‘This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow’
Jeremiah 22 v 3 and 4
‘When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.’
Matthew 2 vs 13-15
‘Jesus said ‘I was a stranger and you invited me in ...whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 25
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
Hebrews 13:2
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 21 v 4
What would Jesus do?
When people have to flee to other countries due to war or persecution, we quickly condemn the violence and have compassion on those in need. Our government offers aid, we send donations to help the relief effort, we pray for peace ...
Examples would include:
- the atrocities in Darfur, Sudan
- the plight of people in Lebanon,
- the persecution of Kurds by Saddam Hussein
Yet, what is our reaction when the same people come to Britain seeking asylum, seeking a safe place to escape persecution ...
- Why does our attitude change?
- Why do we become suspicious, un welcoming, hostile?
- What would Jesus do?
What do church leaders say?
“I find it absolutely unacceptable that in a city and a nation such as ours, thousands of people are left with nothing and with no means of obtaining either benefits or a livelihood. These destitute refugees and asylum seekers should be at the top of our agenda as a church and as individuals. My only comfort, in this sad situation, is that organisations like RESTORE are orchestrating a response of love and compassion. We must all do what we can to support their work in both service and campaigning to help build a more just society for those right on the margins of this relatively prosperous region. Jesus reminded us that whatever we do for the least of these we do for him and I would urge all Church leaders, both lay and ordained, to find out more about RESTORE and the plight of Refugees and Asylum Seekers.”
Rt Rev Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York (written when he was Bishop of Birmingham)
“I am puzzled about which Bible people are reading when they suggest religion and politics don’t mix ...When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, “Now is that political or social?” He said, “I feed you.” Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
A Psalm for our generation ...
Lord, I’m bewildered and depressed by the injustice I hear about and see, day after day;
I’m angry that it goes on and on and on and on;
What can one man do in the face of such great need?
I’m knackered through trying to address these issues and fed up that I’m powerless to make any difference.
But it’s not me that needs you to intervene,
it’s the marginalized strangers, you know, the ones you implored us to welcome.
Lord, where’s your care and concern for ‘the least of these children of mine’?
Why does a civilised society that supposedly champions the cause of freedom for the oppressed, allow those who flee to our shores for safety ...
to go without a roof,
without a bed,
without a crust,
in the hope that they’ll eventually get fed up and slope off home?
Where are you and your justice Lord?
Has someone stolen your scales?
But I know, or at least I hope, that you have seen the story unfold for every individual who lies awake at night unable to sleep or rest because of the physical and emotional trauma they have experienced back home and the shock of exclusion and disbelief they have encountered here.
You — the tortured One — felt the brutal pain of their imprisonment, their beatings, their torture, their rape
You — the rejected One - you listen to the cries of those rejected today; you stand alongside them and offer solidarity, comfort and acceptance;
You — the despised One — know each fearful prejudiced thought that leads to mistrust and disbelief; and you know the truth.
The actions, words and thoughts of us all are weighed in your scales.
Bring justice Lord, and please don’t let them wait another day.
Amen!
Prayer
When we have no words to express our anger Lord, give us the voice to speak out.
When we find no reason to hope in the future Lord, give us the strength to go on.
When we have no easy answers to the crisis we face Lord, give us the compassion to try.
And for the sake of all people give us the determination to struggle for justice, until your peace is made perfect and the tanks rust with irrelevance.
Amen
Indifference
When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged Him on a tree, They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary; They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep, For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to Birmingham they simply passed Him by, They never hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain, They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.
Still Jesus cried, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do,” And still it rained the wintry rain that drenched Him through and through;The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see, And Jesus crouched against a wall and cried for Calvary.
(‘Woodbine Willy’, Rev G.A. Studdert-Kennedy)
Resources
Books
A Place of Refuge: a positive approach to asylum seekers and refugees in the UK (London: Church House - Anglican, 2005)
Asylum Voices, Bradstock and Trotman, eds. (London: CTBI, 2003)
Reaching Out (various editions) by Henri Nouwen
Praying in Exile (London: SPCK, 1995) by Gordon Mursell
Welcoming Asylum Seekers (Cambridge, England: Grove, 2004) by Stephen Burns
Asylum and Immigration: A Christian Perspective on a Polarised Debate (Milton Keynes: Paternoster Press, 2004) by Nick Spencer
Cadences of Home: Preaching among Exiles (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997) by Walter Brueggemann
Videos
Video A safe place — Show Racism The Red Card, PO Box 141, Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, NE26 3YH Website: Show Racism the Red Card
Video Exile — Top Cat Theatre Company, 32 Lowcay Road, Southsea, Hants, PO5 2QA Website: Top Cat Theatre
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