Britain is accepting thousands of Syrian refugees. But where are the Christians?
No Christians at all were among more than 1,000 Syrian refugees resettled in Britain in the first quarter of this year. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) originally recommended 1,358 Syrian refugees for resettlement in Britain, of which only four were Christians. The Home Office agreed to resettle 1,112 of them, all Muslims.
The figures were revealed in response to a Freedom of Information request by the Barnabas Fund, a charity which provides aid to Christians in Muslim countries.
Last year, the agency said, the UNHCR recommended 7,060 Syrian refugees to Britain, of whom only 25 were Christians. Of the 4,850 accepted by the Home Office last year, only 11 were Christians.
“It shows a pattern of under-representation and significant prima facie evidence of discrimination that the Government has a legal duty to take concrete steps to address,” the Barnabas Fund said.
Christians made up about 10 per cent of Syria’s pre-war population. Why, then, are so few being resettled in Britain?
The refugees selected by the UNHCR are taken from refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon – countries adjoining Syria. Very few of the people in these camps are Christian.
Some Christians have said that they avoid the refugee camps because they are intimidated or open to persecution there. Instead they are more likely to stay with their extended families in nearby countries.
Lord Alton has written to the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, calling for the Home Office to address what he describes as discrimination.
Part of the problem, he told the Catholic Herald, is that the UNHCR “don’t take into account the religious background of those who apply”. Two years ago the House of Commons declared that Christians and Yazidis in Syria and northern Iraq are victims of genocide by ISIS. “So why are they not prioritising them?” he asked.
Lord Alton has asked the Home Secretary “to reconsider the criteria which determine the vulnerability of applicants”.
John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) said the position of Christians was “uniquely serious”. “They find themselves unable to get into the UN camps,” he said. “I visited one such camp in Zahlé [in Lebanon] in which the camp coordinator indicated that it was imperative that all refugees abide by Muslim customs, and as such Christians had not entered. This includes the demand that Christian women be veiled. The Christians themselves told me that they were afraid to enter the camps for fear of physical and verbal abuse, including sexual violence,” he said.
But, he added, “we can’t claim this is a thorough analysis” because the evidence was in the form of first-hand conversations and might not be representative of the wider picture.
There is some evidence that middle-class or professional Christians living in government-controlled areas in Syria may choose to stay where they are, rather than abandon their homes and jobs for an uncertain future.
Some join family members in other countries; others move to Christian areas of Lebanon or to cities in Jordan or other countries, and don’t consider themselves to be refugees.
Others are staying with fellow Christians who have made a spare room or garage available to them. “This means Christians have disappeared beneath the radar of the UN and as such it is no surprise that so few are recommended for resettlement,” said Pontifex.
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