Fears for Syria’s Christian refugees

The revelation that Islamist terrorists responsible for the Paris attacks entered Europe under cover of the vast refugee influx of recent months, has challenged the broad church consensus that backed the opening of borders to those fleeing Syria and other war zones, write James Roberts, Mark Brolly, Christa Pongratz-Lippitt, Elena Curti and Catherine Pepinster.

The charity for persecuted Christians, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), has said that it is concerned that Christian refugees are being overlooked in the crisis.

In London this week Cardinal Vincent Nichols was asked why most or all of the refugees admitted to Europe are Muslim, and said the government’s programme to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees unintentionally excluded Christians. The refugees would be from camps run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, whereas Christian refugees are accommodated outside those camps, he said. “The government ... can’t discriminate on the basis of religion ... but an accidental consequence might be that very few Christian families are being given that opportunity.” 

The Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher expressed concern that Australia’s intake of 12,000 Syrian refugees will mostly feature Muslims rather than Christians or other minorities. “Oriental Christians [and other groups] are very anxious and can’t get clarity on what the Australian government is trying to achieve,” Archbishop Fisher told The Weekend Australian newspaper. 

John Pontifex of ACN agreed the British government plan seemed to be to take refugees from the UN camps. The problem as he understood it was Christians did not feel safe in these camps, as they faced abuse, intimidation, or worse. Hence they sought sanctuary in other camps run by Christian groups. ACN was supporting such camps, but Mr Pontifex was concerned that Christians are being overlooked.

Peter Sutherland, the UN’s special envoy on migration, and president of the International Catholic Migration Commission this week criticised British politicians’ attitude to migrants.

Speaking at an event in London hosted by St Benet’s Hall, Oxford, he said: “The challenge is welcoming others into our house. Can politicians not sort this problem out? Sort it out!” He added: “It is unacceptable for somebody to define who we save by their religion,” insisting that the refugees “are escaping from Islamic State at risk of their lives”. The issue was a straightforward moral question, he said.

In Germany, which will have taken in up to one million refugees by the end of the year, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, warned that sooner or later Germany will have to cap the numbers. While many were fleeing war, they came from countries where “hatred of Jews and intolerance are part and parcel of society”, he told the German daily Die Welt.

The Bavarian bishops cautioned against polarisation of the general public, and called for a level-headed  debate. Society needed a “differentiated and honest debate on how to integrate refugees, how many immigrants our country can take in and what consequences this could have for the economy and the social security system”, the bishops underlined.

n The head of the Syriac Catholic Church has accused Western governments of betraying Christians in the Middle East and says it is “a big lie” to suggest Islamic State can be defeated with airstrikes. Lebanon-based Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan said last week that “all Eastern patriarchs have spoken out clearly to the West saying “innocent people, especially Christians, have no support” and that “the West has betrayed us”.