Christian leaders have condemned the government’s plans to send illegal asylum seekers 4,500 miles away to Rwanda for processing as unethical.
The announcement of the proposals followed the reaching of a ‘migration and economic development partnership’ between the British and Rwandan governments, costing a reported £21m. Critics have called it ‘state-sponsored people-trafficking’.
In his Easter sermon, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said the plan raised serious ethical questions; and that it amounted to ‘sub-contracting our responsibilities’ and was ‘the opposite of the nature of God’.
Stephen Kneale, pastor at Oldham Bethel Church and the influential writer of the buildingjerusalem.blog, said: ‘The government is passing off its own responsibilities to people. It is actively stopping people from claiming asylum in the UK.’
Paul Butler, the Bishop of Durham, who has an evangelical background, told the Guardian: ‘Asylum seekers who arrive on our shores are our international responsibility and should be dealt with in our own land with the human dignity to which they are entitled.
‘There are many questions about the parameters of any offshoring proposal that remain unanswered, including the financial cost, but primarily around the question of dignity.’
The Rwanda plan would be permitted under the Nationality and Borders Bill – but it has not yet gone through Parliament and there is stiff opposition from politicians, including peers.
