British Government admits Christian refugees mostly overlooked
When the United Nations recently recommended 1,358 Syrians for refugee resettlement in Britain, only four were Christian. The U.K. finally decided to accept 1,112 of the total but none of the Christians. Barnabas Fund officials report: Christians, who comprised around 10 percent of Syria’s population before the civil war, are grossly underrepresented among refugees accepted by Britain. Christians make up only less than 1 percent of the Syrian nationals resettled in U.K. to date.
The truth finally has been revealed about why there are so few Christians in refugee camps set up to aid those who are fleeing Muslim violence in the Middle East. It’s because they suffer persecution there, even in the camps from Muslims.
That’s according to a report from a worldwide Christian ministry that works with persecuted members of the faith. According to its report, the U.K. Home Office “has finally acknowledged that Christian refugees in the Middle East are ‘reluctant’ to enter the refugee camp system.” And for a good reason.
The report also concluded, that the Home Office refused to recognize that “Christian refugees’ ‘reluctance’ stems from the fact that Christians in camps have faced persecution from some of the Muslims in the camps.”
“In response to a Freedom of Information request sent by a Barnabas Fund supporter, the Home Office admitted, ‘Minority groups may be more reluctant to go to camps. Many Christians live outside the camps and rely on churches and Christian support groups.
Barnabas Fund officials say they have helped Syrian Christian families who are unable to return home to resettle in Australia and other countries.
The help has come to Christians largely outside the British government network of programs to help such refugees.
Barnabas Fund reported, “The position of historical Christian communities across the Middle East is a perilous one. Writing in The Sunday Telegraph on 1 December,
the Archbishop of Canterbury stated, ‘Across the region Christian communities that were the foundation of the universal church now face the threat of imminent extinction … We must support and help them in every way we can. Where they wish to leave, they will be refugees in need of asylum.‘”
However, this is not what is happening. The Fund report said, “The very mechanisms employed by the UNHCR in their referral process mean that Christians, who comprised around 10 percent of Syria’s population before the civil war, are grossly underrepresented; Christians make up less than 1 percent of the Syrian nationals resettled in U.K. to date.”
As the Home Office explained, “We work closely with the UNHCR to prioritize the most vulnerable refugees … We do not discriminate in favor of, or against a particular group.”
WND reported how refugees have been the burden of the Western world as millions of Muslims have fled violent Muslim lands in the Middle East and North Africa. Transportation, food, rent, job training even significant accommodations for their religion have been provided. Do Christian refugees truly benefit from all these?
According to political analyst Judith Bergman, some Christians are among them and some from other religious minorities, but they haven’t been welcomed much by the UK Home Office, it appears.
In fact when the United Nations recently recommended 1,358 Syrian refugees for resettlement in Britain during the first quarter of 2018, of whom only four were Christians.
The UK Home Office agreed to resettle 1,112 of these refugees, all of whom were Muslims, and refused to accept the Christians.
Bergman said the British government wants to give the impression it cares about persecuted Christians. Instead: “There certainly does appear to be ‘a pattern of discrimination’ that has been ongoing since at least 2015,” Bergman wrote.
Source: www.gatestoneinstitute.org prestonbusinessreview.com