Call for aid agencies to prioritise Christians

British church-linked charities are at loggerheads over whether to discriminate in favour of Christian refugees fleeing jihadists such as Islamic State (IS) in Iraq, writes Abigail Frymann Rouch.

Ensuring Equality, a report co-authored by 16 NGOs, argued that charities and donors should focus attention on displaced Middle Eastern non-Muslims because they face the double blow of being targeted by jihadists and facing discrimination if they seek help at a UN camp or facility. As a result, the report said, minorities have fared “unequally in the allocation of international aid, funding, political support, media attention, and asylum placements”. The report added that “international aid rarely reaches the Christians, most of whom remain entirely dependent on the churches and smaller charities”, whose resources were depleting.  

Larger organisations such as the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development, which receive grants from the Department for International Development (DFID), stand by their policy of helping people of all faiths and none equally. The charities behind the 88-page report, published last month, include Aid to the Church in Need, Iraqi Christians in Need and the Barnabas Fund. None receives DFID funding and all primarily support Christians. The report argued that government departments should all formulate ways of prioritising Middle Eastern Christians because of their particular need.