Anglican bishop shaken ‘to the core’ by home secretary’s asylum seeker comments | Immigration and asylum

A Church of England bishop said Shabana Mahmood’s comments about asylum seekers shook him “to the core” and argued people coming to the UK were being “scapegoated” for years of government policy failures.

Mahmood is expected to announce measures under which people’s refugee status will be reviewed every two and a half years and the waiting period for permanent settlement could be extended to 20 years. It was also understood that people who were granted asylum could be sent back if their country was deemed safe. This follows comments from Mahmood in which he said illegal immigration was “tearing the country apart”.

Rt Rev Dr Anderson Jeremiah, bishop of Edmonton and London’s leading bishop for racial justice, said Mahmood’s comments had “shook me to my core”.

He said: “We scapegoat refugees for the failures and political divisions caused by successive governments over the last 15 years – the failures of successive governments on wealth inequality, education funding, the cost of living, basic healthcare and infrastructure.

“Every day I encounter homeless people falling through the cracks in our system, but by segregating asylum seekers while the number of millionaires and billionaires grows, we are putting the burden of society’s problems on the shoulders of less than 1% of the UK population.

“There are politicians trying to keep compassion alive in public life, but there is also pressure to have a single problem that everything can be blamed on.

“But we are an interconnected society. Our environmental crisis is deeply linked to the conflicts that are driving people to our borders. We cannot isolate one section of people and label them as a problem that can be easily solved. If one part of the body hurts, it harms the whole body.”

Campaigners also reacted to Mahmood’s suggestions. Nick Beales, campaign chair of the Refugee and Immigrant Forum in Essex and London, said the proposals were “extremely cruel and counterproductive, would undermine social cohesion initiatives and do nothing to reduce numbers – what they would do is absolutely bring the Home Office to its knees with people constantly having to renew their status.”

Rivka Shaw, from Greater Manchester Immigration Aid, said the proposals were “a re-implementation of some of the worst and most failed policies of recent times”. [Conservative] government – ​​to appease people who want more and more hate.”

Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, director of policy and public affairs at immigration charity Praxis, said the “morally reprehensible” proposals would fill asylum seekers with “terror”, despite ministers’ claims that they would not apply to people already in the UK.

He said: “The government always talks about people needing to contribute and integrate, but making them wait 20 years without any permanent status is absolutely contrary to that. “The impact of these proposals on children is particularly appalling.

“When people come to the UK they come based on whether they speak the language and whether they have relatives, not on how they are treated. This will not reduce numbers, it will just make people’s lives more miserable.”

Rabbi David Mason of the charity HIAS+Jcore, a Jewish organization supporting asylum seekers and refugees, said there were echoes of the past.

“As a Jew, my grandparents fled Germany and came here because of the kindness of the country, but integration was difficult. In 1938 and 1939, people were saying ‘too many Jews were coming,'” he said.

“There are recurring aspects; on the one hand we want to be compassionate, but on the other hand we find it difficult to do so because we are afraid of the other. Then the other was Jewish culture, now it is other cultures. Of course we need safe borders, but in today’s Britain we can be compassionate and accommodating; ‘strangers’ can be neighbours.”

The government’s plans to overhaul the asylum system are at odds with its commitment to economic growth, a report expected to be unveiled at a parliamentary event on Tuesday has found.

reportWelcome Growth: The Economic Case for a Fair and Humane Asylum System, by the Public and Commercial Services Alliance (PCS) at the London School of Economics and the Together with Refugees campaign, modeled the potential economic impact of four specific changes to the asylum system and found that a “fair and humane” asylum system would benefit the economy by around £266,000 for every refugee accepted after five years of settled status.

PCS said these changes – processing requests within six months, people receiving legal assistance at every stage of the application process, English language support from the day of arrival and employment support from the day of arrival – will reduce the cost of refugee accommodation and increase employment income.

Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the PCS, whose members include Home Office staff, said he did not believe the government’s “suddenly” plans were feasible. He said: “People are fed up with appeasing the far right. The fair and humane system we propose will boost growth and must be better than fueling hatred and division.”