Refugees Deserve Security, Not Decades of Limbo

St Chad’s & St Mark’s District Church Council

St Chad’s & St Mark’s District Church Council is urging the Government to reconsider settlement proposals that could leave recognised refugees facing decades of insecurity, while welcoming greater security for qualifying care workers.

“People who are already rebuilding lives fractured by persecution, displacement and loss need the possibility of security and belonging, not the prospect of spending much of their adult lives waiting for them.”

— Revd Ray Gaston, Vicar St Chad’s & St Mark’s

Council statement on the Government’s new settlement rules

As a church congregation which includes significant numbers of both care workers and people who came to this country seeking sanctuary and have subsequently been granted refugee status, the announcement on settlement brings us both joy and profound sorrow.

Welcome security. Reject prolonged insecurity.

We warmly welcome the decision to retain a five-year route to settlement for qualifying care workers. Many care workers have served our communities with extraordinary commitment. Members of our own congregation care for elderly, vulnerable and disabled people, work long and demanding hours, contribute to the life of the country, and have made their homes among us. We rejoice with those for whom this announcement brings greater security and hope.

But we cannot celebrate for some while remaining silent about what is being done to others.

We are deeply disturbed by proposals which could make refugees who reached Britain by irregular routes wait decades for permanent settlement. Some people arriving by small boat could face a 20-year route to settlement, rising in some circumstances to 30 years.

Among our congregation, and among those we have come to know through our wider community, are people who fled persecution and danger. Some had no realistic safe route available to them. They did not undertake dangerous journeys lightly. They sought refuge, their claims were examined by the British authorities, and they were granted refugee status.

Friends and neighbours, not labels

Our church hosts City of Sanctuary because the welcome of the stranger is not an abstract principle for us. It is part of the life of our Christian community. Through it, and through the wider life of our church, we have come to know people seeking sanctuary from many different backgrounds, beliefs and traditions, not as categories or statistics, but as friends and neighbours. We hear something of their stories, the dangers from which they have fled and the courage involved in rebuilding a life in a new country.

That is why we cannot accept a public narrative which reduces people to the label “illegal migrants”. We particularly object to that language being applied to people who have sought asylum, had their cases considered and have subsequently been granted refugee status.

Whatever arguments there may be about the means by which people enter this country, those arguments must not be allowed to obscure why people flee, their right to seek protection, or the fact that many have subsequently been recognised as refugees.

A system which leaves recognised refugees facing decades of insecurity seems to us not merely harsh but profoundly unjust. People who are already rebuilding lives fractured by persecution, displacement and loss need the possibility of security and belonging, not the prospect of spending much of their adult lives waiting for them.

Dignity belongs to everyone

Our Christian faith calls us to recognise the dignity of our neighbour and to welcome the stranger. That commitment does not stop at the doors of our church or extend only to people who share our faith. It is precisely because we are Christians that we believe such dignity belongs to everyone.

So today we rejoice with the care workers whose future has become more secure, while mourning with those refugees for whom the hope of permanent settlement has been pushed much further away. We stand alongside both.

We also repent that the language of “illegality” has become so dominant in our national conversation, and that churches, civil society, and the wider community, including ourselves, have not always challenged it strongly enough.

The people affected by these decisions are not statistics in an immigration debate. They are people with whom we worship, work, share our neighbourhoods and build community. Through our congregation and our wider community work we know them as friends. Their gifts enrich our common life. Refugees and asylum seekers are a core part of the volunteer teams who cook our community meals, staff our food market and support our community projects more widely.

End decades of insecurity. Uphold refugees’ dignity.

We therefore urge the Government to reconsider those elements of the new settlement policy which impose exceptionally prolonged periods of insecurity upon people who have been recognised as refugees. We also call upon churches, civil society and people of goodwill to challenge language which obscures their humanity and their recognised status as refugees.

For our part, we will continue to seek to be a place of sanctuary, friendship and solidarity for those who have made their homes among us.

ENDS

St Chad’s & St Mark’s Church
St Chad’s Vicarage,
Manlove Street,
Wolverhampton
WV3 0HG

For further details, contact: Revd Ray Gaston on 01902 652633