'Love the Stranger' - World Refugee Day 2023

I have recently moved into the parish of St Cecilia in North Cheam in the diocese of Southwark and was delighted this weekend to see an entry in the parish newsletter telling me that 19 - 25 June is Refugee week and encouraging me to read the Bishops of England and Wales teaching document, 'Love the Stranger' (the Catholic response to migrants and refugees) Produced in February 2023 this was the first time I had heard about it and rejoiced that my parish wanted to tell me about it. Even better the newsletter gave me the link to the document: www.cbcew.org.uk/love-the-stranger/

Sadly, the UK has become a place with a toxic rhetoric and pernicious laws against refugees. 'Asylum seekers' are increasingly used as scapegoats for issues in the UK and villainised both politically and socially. The narrative that 'asylum seekers cost millions to the British taxpayer' is regularly used by the Government and press as an attempted justification for an increasingly hostile environment.

The reality in the UK is that people seeking safety are locked up indefinitely, left in limbo and live under the perpetual threat of deportation. The current asylum system already too often fails those desperately seeking safety. Instead of safety and shelter, people can be left hungry and homeless on our streets while they wait, sometimes years, to get a decision that in many cases is wrong.

In the introduction to their document the bishops describe how people making dangerous journeys across the Channel to reach the UK are called by various names, 'refugees', 'asylum seekers', 'migrants', and often by more derogatory terms.' And goes on to say, 'This publication by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales Department for International Affairs is shaped by, and articulates, our Christian duty to look beyond such labels and see the person who has left their homeland in search of a better life'

The document goes on to explain in 8 sections why caring for people on the move is an integral part of how we live out our Catholic faith. During Refugee week is World Refugee Day on Tuesday 20th June. With the title, 'Hope away from Home. A world where refugees are always included' this year's World Refugee Day focuses on the power of inclusion and solutions for refugees.

The UNHCR website states that, 'Including refugees in the communities where they have found safety after fleeing conflict and persecution is the most effective way to support them in restarting their lives and enable them to contribute to the countries hosting them'. This is clearly affirmed in the bishops' document.

Section 3 of the bishops' document speaks of the right to flourish in one's homeland .and lays out the principles underlying this right.

We recognise the right of all people to flourish in their homeland; every nation has a duty to uphold this by working for peace, promoting good governance and tackling the causes of poverty

We ask our own government to help other countries address the factors that drive people from their homelands, including through the provision of a just aid budget, control of the arms trade, promotion of human rights and action to tackle the climate emergency

We affirm the responsibility of the Church and civil society to help people in their homelands, including through the work of organisations such as CAFOD, Missio, Pax Christi, and Aid to the Church in Need

It is a message that the UK government needs to hear. The UK Government has a duty to support refugees and asylum seekers, but it is doing this using the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget, which is designed to fight poverty around the world. In doing so the UK government has reduced the UK's already reduced global development programmes by around a third (£3.7 billion). UK aid is failing refugees and asylum seekers both here and abroad by spending its overseas aid budget on newly arrived migrants. It's a political decision that is having devastating consequences and makes the UK overseas development budget anything but a 'just budget'.

The UK is failing asylum seekers and refugees in the UK as well as those facing conflict, climate change and inequality globally. By redirecting development assistance aimed at tackling poverty reduction, building climate resilience, conflict prevention and peacebuilding in the world's poorest and most marginalised regions for domestic expenses, the government risks undermining long-term development efforts and avoids tackling the root causes of displacement and addressing the question of why so many people are forced to leave their homes every day.

People seeking sanctuary should not be scapegoated as the reason the ODA budget is being further squeezed. This is a government decision with a political 'divide and rule' agenda aimed at setting one group against another in order to justify 'shameful decisions.

As the bishops affirm, as Christians striving for social justice, we should stand in solidarity with all people facing poverty and oppression. Expressing discontentment at the Government's choice to use the ODA budget to fulfil its moral and legal responsibility to support people seeking sanctuary isn't the problem. It's how we do it. When talking about 'in-country refugee costs' and ODA, we should think twice to avoid feeding into existing harmful narratives and remember that behind the numbers, there are people trying to live in safety and dignity, wherever that may be. As Pope Francis says, 'Every migrant has a name, a face and a story'

But perhaps the last word should be with the UK bishops. '

Love the Stranger places the human being at the heart of our pastoral outreach, looking beyond statistics and policies to the person - each with a name, a face and a story. How many have died in our own waters without their names or stories ever being known? We should not reduce people to statistics or to a political problem to be solved.

LINK

Welcome the Stranger: www.cbcew.org.uk/love-the-stranger/