A bishop has defended the clergy’s position in serving to asylum seekers with their claims after politicians linked their help to abuses within the asylum system, following the case of chemical assault suspect Abdul Ezedi.
Bishop of Chelmsford, Guli Francis-Dehqani, mentioned it was “saddening” to listen to such feedback, as spiritual leaders are “supporting people who are often deeply vulnerable and traumatised”.
A nationwide manhunt for Ezedi started on Wednesday, after a corrosive liquid assault on a mom and two kids in Clapham, southwest London.
Following the assault, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick referred to “spurious” claims by folks within the asylum system that they’ve transformed to Christianity “aided and abetted by often well-meaning but naive vicars and priests”.
Former house secretary Suella Braverman, writing within the Sunday Telegraph, mentioned throughout her time in workplace she “became aware of churches around the country facilitating industrial-scale bogus asylum claims”.
Ezedi, believed to be from Afghanistan, satisfied officers to permit him to remain within the UK in 2020, understood partly because of a priest who vouched for his dedication to Christianity, following conversion.
He had twice been rejected for asylum by the Home Office, based on stories, as soon as shortly after he got here to the UK in 2016, and once more within the wake of his prosecution in 2018.
Bishop Guli, who got here to the UK aged simply 13 within the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, known as the Clapham assault “shocking and brutal”.
She wrote within the Telegraph: “Because the alleged perpetrator has been reported as someone seeking asylum in the UK on grounds of conversion to Christianity, some, including senior politicians, have questioned the role of churches and other faiths in supporting those who seek our help and protection here.”
Read extra from Sky News:
New sighting of Ezedi as man arrested for hiding suspect
As it occurred: Manhunt search
As a Christian chief, she mentioned she makes “no apology for our involvement in supporting people who are often deeply vulnerable and traumatised.
“But church buildings haven’t any energy to avoid the federal government’s responsibility to vet and approve purposes – the duty for this rests with the Home Office.”
Religious ministers from all denominations occasionally provide statements of support to people seeking asylum, “however it’s incorrect to consider this as some kind of magic ticket”.
She added: “The notion that an individual could also be fast-tracked by way of the asylum system, aided and abetted by the Church is solely inaccurate.”
Source: information.sky.com”