Adviser defends Church amid concern over asylum claims

Official backs conversion process, saying Cofe must remain at frontline of helping the vulnerable

THE Church should “never apologise” for supporting asylum seekers, an official has said, amid concern over its role helping applicants to “game the system”.

Ben Ryan, the Church of England’s home affairs adviser for the Mission, whose role includes interests in migration, family policy and criminal justice, issued a defiant rebuttal of claims that some asylum seekers’ conversion to Christianity is inauthentic.

He said: “While undoubtedly there are those who believe that seeking membership of the Church will fasttrack their asylum claim there is no evidence this practice is commonly accepted by either the Church or the Home Office, or even that this practice is remotely widespread.”

In a thread on Twitter, he stressed many were genuine: “There are many genuine Christian converts from Iran and elsewhere and lazy reporting risks jeopardising the extent to which their cases are taken seriously.

“The Home Office has a lamentable record on religious literacy and assessing such claims.

“The Church should never apologise for being at the forefront of supporting some of the world’s most vulnerable.

“It is not a coincidence that many refugees look to the Church for support, churches are essential in the work of supporting refugees and asylum seekers.”

The Church of England is facing questions over its role in converting hundreds of asylum seekers, including the Liverpool suicide bomber, to Christianity in an attempt to help them avoid deportation.

Meanwhile, a trawl of previous appeal hearings reveals the extent to which asylum seekers use religion and other tactics as a means of appealing for the right to remain in the UK.

In a 2020 ruling, a 23-year-old Iranian man who arrived in the UK in 2014 claimed asylum because he “faced the death penalty” after being filmed on

CCTV urinating on a mosque after drinking alcohol. Then just 15, he said he went to a party before tending his pigeons on a roof near the mosque before losing control of his bladder.

The judge wrote: “I do not accept that it would be possible for the appellant to urinate for such a distance, and with such accuracy so as to hit the door to the mosque, three to four metres away, from three storeys up.”

However, the man was allowed to stay because he had now converted from Islam to Christianity after attending the Alpha course at a Belfast church.

Another successful appeal that year saw another man, again granted anonymity, claim his conversion would have meant he would have been an “apostate” if returned to Iran.

The ruling hinged on the evidence of a clergyman from the Iranian Christian Fellowship who insisted the man was a “committed” convert to Christianity

‘The Home Office has a lamentable record on religious literacy and assessing such claims’

after attending an Alpha course. The asylum seeker “publicised” his new faith on Facebook, something the London tribunal heard had been spotted by the Iranian authorities and led to his father’s arrest.

In a Bradford case from 2019, an Iranian man, named only as Saman H, had his appeal against being barred from the UK thrown out because his apparent conversion to Christianity coincided with him being jailed for producing cannabis.

A pastor from an unnamed Doncaster church told the hearing that although he was aware that some asylum seekers would “seek to pull the wool over my eyes”, the man was baptised after attending the Alpha course.

The priest said he was “gutted” when he learned of the man’s conviction, adding that he wished he had “approached the church for help”.

The judge believed the Iranian man was a “practised liar … willing to deceive” the clergyman, adding how the procedures adopted by the Doncaster church before granting a baptism “are plainly fallible”.