The bishops of England and Wales have published a document on the Catholic response to refugees and migrants, less than a week after the bishops’ conference’s lead on the subject criticised the government’s Illegal Migration Bill.
The 32-page document, called “Love the Stranger”, was published on 14 March and outlines a recommended response to migration, emphasising the protection of human rights.
It is co-sponsored by Bishop Declan Lang, the conference’s chair for the Department for International Affairs, and Bishop Paul McAleenan, its lead for migrants and refugees.
The document’s publication comes only a week after the home secretary Suella Braverman announced new, more stringent detention and deportation methods for illegal crossings on the Channel.
“Love the Stranger” exhorts readers and political actors to humanise migrants, cautioning against using specific labels so as to reduce them to a “problem to be solved”. Quoting Pope Francis, the declaration explains that migrants are instead “sisters and brothers to be welcomed, respected, and loved”.
The document offers a summary of 24 “principles”, which frequently echo the catechism in accentuating the “innate worth of each human person”, “fundamental human dignity”, and the “sanctity of life”.
The joint declaration acknowledges that “states have a right to control their borders”, but cautions that “such measures cannot be based on economic factors alone; states have a responsibility to promote the common good of the people within their boundaries, but they also have obligations to the wider world”.
Another statement, which alludes to present UK government policy, says:
“We call upon the government to avoid the use of immigration detention, arbitrary expulsion and other practices which violate human dignity.”
In April 2022, the then-home secretary Priti Patel introduced deportation to Rwanda, regardless of a migrant’s initial country of origin, and this has been continued under Braverman.
The document denounces “nationalism”, “xenophobia”, and “individualism”. It further decries a tendency to view human persons through an economistic lens.
Quoting the Catechism directly, the document reiterates that “[i]t is a sin against the dignity of persons and their fundamental rights to reduce them by violence to their productive value or to a source of profit.”
Throughout the statement, the bishops condemn human trafficking and call for joint efforts between charities and governments alike to work towards its eradication.
The document comes at a time the topics of border security and migration are being given media and public spotlight.
On 9March, CCTV caught Iraqi asylum seeker Rebaz Mohammed stabbing a British teenager in the back in an unprovoked attack. While Ellis Wheeler was left hospitalised and fighting for his life, his mother demanded answers after it was found her son’s attacker had been allowed to return to the UK after a prior assault conviction.
In early 2022, it was reported that more than 150 migrants had died in the prior three years after attempting to cross the English Channel. Over 25,000 successfully made the illegal journey over the course of that year. Meanwhile, the BBC reported that 150 arrests were made, which accounts for 0.3 per cent of those who crossed.
The bishops conclude by asking “all the Catholic faithful to reach out the hand of friendship to migrants and refugees so that they can help us grow in the love of God and we can together grow in universal fraternity and solidarity”.
(Photograph of Bishop McAleenan courtesy of the Diocese of Westminster)
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