refugees – Page 15 – The Church of England in Parliament

Bishop of St Albans urges commitment to international responses to refugee displacement

On 6th January 2022, the House of Lords debated the issue of mass refugee displacement. The Bishop of St Albans spoke in the debate, stressing the importance of a global response to help refugees and displaced people and address the causes of displacement:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, for initiating this most important debate and for his excellent introduction, which has set the scene for us all.

We face not a static situation but one that is constantly changing. Since the start of 2020, we have seen the re-emergence of conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, bringing back the displacement that characterised the conflicts in the 1980s and 1990s. Ethiopia’s ongoing civil conflict has left just over 2 million internally displaced people in Tigray and a further 250,000 in the region of Amhara, according to the UN. We have seen the military coup in Myanmar, which has done nothing to improve—indeed, it has made worse—any prospect of resettling the estimated 745,000 beleaguered Rohingya Muslims resident in Cox’s Bazar, now the world’s largest refugee camp.

Bishop of Leeds speaks in debate on mass displacement of refugees

On 6th January 2022, the Bishop of Leeds spoke in a debate on refugee displacement, highlighting the role of climate change in displacement and the need for urgent action on the causes of refugee crises:

The Lord Bishop of Leeds: My Lords, I also congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Alton, on securing this debate. I am grateful to him for personifying the issue by naming individuals. I visited camps for internally displaced people in Iraqi Kurdistan several years ago. I am still haunted by the faces, not always the voices. When you are confronted with a 12 year-old boy who had not spoken since being forced to watch his father be beheaded outside his front door, then it is the faces, not the voices. They haunt me.

Bishop of Durham asks about refugees returning to Burundi

The Bishop of Durham received the following written answers on 8th December 2021:

The Lord Bishop of Durham asked Her Majesty’s Government, following the announcement made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on 27 October that 60,000 refugees are voluntarily returning home to Burundi this year, what steps they will take to support (1) the UN, and (2) the refugees’ return, and (3) integration in that country.

Bishop of Durham asks about the UK asylum system

The Bishop of Durham received the following written answers on 8th December 2021:

The Lord Bishop of Durham asked Her Majesty’s Government how many children are currently waiting for a decision on their asylum application and have waited for over six months.

Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con): The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release, which can be found on go.uk. Data on the number of people awaiting a decision on an asylum application are published in table ASY_D03 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’, which can be found attached. Age breakdowns are not available in the published data.

Bishop of Durham asks about cases of missing child refugees

The Bishop of Durham received the following written answer on 7th December 2021:

The Lord Bishop of Durham asked Her Majesty’s Government:

how many missing persons cases of child refugees have been issued in 2021.
what records they keep of the number of child refugees who go missing in the UK.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: Safeguarding procedures are in place to ensure children in temporary accommodation are safe and supported until a permanent place can be found with a local authority.

Bishop of Gloucester asks about alternative detention pilot scheme

The Bishop of Gloucester received the following written answer on 3rd December 2021:

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked Her Majesty’s Government when they will
publish the evaluation of the ‘Action Access’ alternative detention pilot.

Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con): The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have appointed the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) to independently evaluate this pilot.

NatCen will be publishing the evaluation on their website the aim is for the evaluation to be published by the end of the year.

Hansard

Bishop of Durham asks about number of child refugees in local authority care in the UK

The Bishop of Durham received the following written answer on 2nd December 2021:

The Lord Bishop of Durham asked Her Majesty’s Government how many child refugees are currently in looked after care in the UK.

Baroness Barran (Con): The department does not collect data on all child refugees that are currently in care, but does collect data on the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) who are looked after by local authorities in England. Of the 80,850 children looked after up to 31 March 2021, there were 4,070 UASC, down 20% from the previous year which was 5,060.

Bishop of Coventry – stopping people smugglers and dangerous channel crossings requires more than policy of deterrence

“a policy that does not go beyond deterrence is not sufficient”

On November 25th 2021 the House of Lords debated a motion from Baroness Hoey, “That this House takes note of the number of migrants arriving in the United Kingdom illegally by boat“.

The Lord Bishop of Coventry: My Lords, I too am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, for securing this debate, especially at this time. I was helped this morning by the “Thought for the Day” from my colleague, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leeds, in which he said that this is a time to dig deeper into our emotions and face the grief we feel at the loss of humanity. It is that sense of grief, our common commitment to the preservation and dignity of life, as well as to a passion for justice for those suffering the ills and evils of the world, which unites us. The noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, demonstrated that.

Our shared grief is the proof we do not really need of the humanity and vulnerability that unites us. These common concerns, which underpin both our aim to stop migrants making dangerous journeys and our grief today, are the same concerns and moral instincts that require us to sit back and face the reality that a policy that does not go beyond deterrence is not sufficient.

Bishop of Leeds asks about conflict in Tigray region of Ethiopia

On 22nd November 2021, the Bishop of Leeds asked a question on the impact of the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on peacekeeping in East Africa, and on the refugee population of the area:

The Lord Bishop of Leeds: My Lords, this is a very unstable region of Africa. Ethiopia has proved crucial to stability in UN peacekeeping as well. Can the Minister say, first, how any diminution in the Ethiopian contribution to UN peacekeeping is being mitigated or compensated for elsewhere? Secondly, what is his assessment of the refugee crisis caused despite the welcome restoration of the transitional Government in Sudan?

Bishop of Southwark asks about funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees

The Bishop of Southwark received the following written answers on 22nd November 2021:

The Lord Bishop of Southwark asked Her Majesty’s Government:

what assessment they have made of the impact of the reduction in their funding of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees for 2021 compared to 2020.
what assessment they have made of (1) the financial position of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and (2) the sustainability of the Agency’s provision of services to Palestinian refugees.

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