AT LAST! A BISHOP WHO TALKS SENSE ON MIGRANTS
THE Archbishop of York yesterday accused European countries of ‘shunting’ migrants towards the Jungle camp in Calais.
John Sentamu, the Church’s second most senior cleric, warned that Britain should not be seen ‘as a soft touch’ and demanded that other EU nations offer homes to asylum seekers in their own countries.
His extraordinary intervention will be seen as a rare example of a senior churchman stepping directly into political territory – in this case the volatile subject of immigration.
Other senior faith figures have spoken of the need to treat migrants with compassion, but Dr Sentamu has directly addressed the EU’s border controls and the failure of its member states to give assistance to migrants passing through their countries.
Last night one Tory MP praised the Archbishop for speaking up about an ‘awkward truth’.
Dr Sentamu said the Jungle camp only exists because of the passport-free Schengen zone, which allows refugees from the Middle East and Africa to make their way to the shores of the English Channel.
He also warned it was impossible to know whether or not some of the migrants are members of Islamic State.
He made his comments at the Henley
Literary Festival, which is sponsored by the Daily Mail.
Dr Sentamu, who was himself an asylum seeker who fled Idi Amin’s regime in Uganda in 1973, visited the Jungle camp in June.
‘That camp [the Jungle] has been a creation of the Schengen countries and they ought to own up to what they’ve created,’ he told his audience.
‘I think it should be that, where ever the asylum seekers arrive in that particular place, you have a responsibility for their care, their love.
‘Schengen countries have not done that with the Jungle and I, for one – as much as I am sympathetic and I feel sorry for the number of people genuinely seeking asylum – I think really the issue lies with the Schengen countries and they cannot see Britain as a soft touch.’
The Schengen Area is a bloc of 26 European countries that have abolished passport and border control at their mutual frontiers.
It means that migrants arriving in one European country can travel freely within the bloc. Many choose to travel to northern France in the hope of reaching Britain.
Dr Sentamu stressed that Britain never signed up to the Schengen agreement and so should not be held accountable for migrants in Calais.
He said: ‘All of the asylum seekers in Calais have come through the Schengen agreement, they’ve gone from nation to nation which signed up in Europe.
‘Those Schengen countries ought to resolve the problem that belongs there because they have entered Europe because of free movement.
‘ Every nation is shunting them and shunting them and shunting them in the hope that they will end up in the UK.
‘I just hope that the Schengen countries can resolve it because it is their free movement of people. Britain did not sign the Schengen agreement.’
Dr Sentamu blamed Tony Blair in part for the migrant crisis overwhelming Europe, saying it was a result of the disastrous invasion of Iraq.
‘ We never thought years would come when we would create this migration of people on a large scale, and there is now a mixture between those who are being persecuted and those who see an opportunity to get out.’
He asked how the government could be certain that among ‘ten asylum seekers, going from Libya, from Iraq, from Syria’ there isn’t ‘one or
‘This needs to be said’
two members of IS’. The Archbishop went on to praise David Cameron’s policy of putting aid into the Middle East to help refugees stay in their home countries.
Dr Sentamu also suggested that Britain should police the Libyan coast to prevent the trafficking of migrants. ‘ What I never understood is, given the ability and the number of British ships we’ve got, why aren’t they patrolling the coast around Libya to stop people getting into boats?’
The Jungle, currently home to 10,000 migrants, has become a politically toxic subject since the Brexit vote, with France and Britain clashing over its future.
Dr Sentamu’s comments were welcomed last night.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory MP for North East Somerset, said: ‘As befits an Archbishop, he has spoken up about an awkward truth. The Schengen states would be wise to listen.’
Peter Bone, Tory MP for Wellingborough, added: ‘These comments by the Archbishop of York are entirely right.
‘This needs to be said, and the more people of his standing who say this, the better.
‘The law is quite clear that people should be given asylum in the first safe country they reach. But they are able to travel across Europe through Schengen countries – and that has resulted in this disaster.’
This is not the first time that senior Church of England clergy have voiced concerns about how the migrant crisis is affecting the UK.
In March the Archbishop of Canterbury said it was ‘outrageous’ to describe people who are worried about the impact of migration as racist. Justin Welby said there was ‘genuine fear’ of the impact on housing, jobs and the NHS.