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press release
churches' refugee network
4 June 2009
Church leader to warn of heightened risk of xenophobia with credit crunch
A church leader will warn of the dangers of Government inaction on asylum at a conference in London this week.
Canon Revd Ruth Worsley, who proposed a General Synod motion on asylum earlier this year, will tell an audience of clergy and laity that unless both church and state face up to the plight of asylum seekers, they will create problems of misery and public cost for the future.
Speaking at ‘From Asylum to Sanctuary', organised by the Churches Refugee Network with Migrants Resource Centre, which will be held at Holy Apostles, Cumberland Street, Pimlico SW1V on Saturday (6 June), Canon Worsley will also highlight the risk of xenophobia in this economic climate.
"With the arrival of the credit crunch, the subsequent loss of jobs, the recent call for British jobs for British people, there is a danger that we become inward looking and even xenophobic," she will say. "But the gospel tells us that we are not a tribal nation but a global family."
In Canon Worsley's address, entitled State and Faith: The Churches' voice on asylum /migration in the ‘civic political space', she will reiterate the Synod motion and stress the need for a response from Government and in the meantime for churches to work towards alleviating destitution among asylum seekers.
The Synod motion proposals are:
- The right to work for all people seeking asylum
- An amnesty of legacy cases
- Moves to alleviate destitution among asylum seekers
- An end to the immigration detention of children
"Too often we have allowed society to tell us that faith should be a private affair or that one person's challenge will make very little difference, " Canon Worsley will say. "Personal faith does affect our public contribution and so we should persist in lobbying MPs and the Home Office; we do know that direct action and intervention can make a difference."
Canon Worsley will illustrate statutory under estimation of risk on return by discussing some current cases, such as that of Ugandan John Bosco Nyombi, who was sent back and maltreated, and whom the High Court ordered to be returned to the UK or that of the Iraqi removed to Northern Iraq and promptly killed.
Canon Worsley's address will be followed by presentations on legal and policy issues in this field by Frank Cranmer, Constitutional Lawyer and Steve Symmonds, Legal Officer at he Immigration Law Practitioners' Association.
A presentation of national and regional project reports on recent good practice in assisting refugees in their journey towards social integration will conclude the session, followed by workshops on accessing mental and physical health care in and out of detention and accessing legal and policy advice.
At the conference, there will also be a photography exhibition cataloguing the experience of asylum seekers in the UK after being granted refugee status.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
1. From Asylum to Sanctuary, organised by the Churches Refugee Network with Migrants Resource Centre, will be held at Holy Apostles, Cumberland Street, Pimlico SW1V 4LY from 10.30am to 4pm.
2. Media are welcome to attend From Asylum to Sanctuary. To register a place or for further information or to conduct any interviews in advance, please contact Hélène Murphy, Media Relations Consultant to CRN Conference, Tel: 07944 847570, Email: hpmurphy@aol.com
3. The Churches Refugee Network aims to provide a collective and ecumenical voice on issues of asylum and immigration. For further information, please visit: http://www.ctbi.org.uk/96/
