Asylum seekers baptised to keep them in UK
THE Church of England has christened hundreds of asylum seekers who hope to use their new-found faith to win the right to stay in the UK, a senior bishop has revealed.
One church alone has baptised 200 Iranian asylum seekers, according to documents placed before the Church’s parliament, the General Synod.
Many of the new converts are thought to have used their beliefs as part of asylum claims put to the Home Office and to immigration court hearings.
The Bishop of Wakefield, the Right Reverend Tony Robinson, said: ‘This type of growth is exciting but costly and transitory. Helping people navigate the legal system is time-consuming for clergy, and many people choose to move elsewhere once they have leave to remain, to be close to friends and family or for work.’
The disclosure of the Church’s deep involvement in helping asylum seekers in claims for refugee status comes ahead of a debate on relations between inner city parishes and other faith groups when the Synod meets in York this weekend.
The 200 Iranian asylum seekers were baptised over a five-year period by Reverend Mark Miller at Stockton Parish Church near Middlesbrough, in an area where migrants who come into the country and apply for refugee status are housed while their claims are considered.
Large numbers of asylum seekers are also reported to have been baptised in cities including Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham and Manchester.
Christianity was driven underground in Iran after the 1979 revolution brought radical Islamic clerics to power.
Independent estimates say there may be 0,000 people who attend clandestine churches in the country.
Advice for clergy from the COFE says Iranian Christians arriving in this country may not have been baptised previously because the ceremony was too dangerous to carry out in Iran.