wfn.org | Racism lies at heart of conflict over asylum, Methodists say

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 7, 2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
ALL-AA-AS-I{352}

NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #351.

By Kathleen LaCamera*

LLANDUDNO, Wales (UMNS) - The Rev. Inderjit Bhogal lives in what some might
call a "disadvantaged area" of the northern English city of Sheffield. But he
says he doesn't see it that way. For this British Methodist minister, it's an
advantage, especially as a newly appointed member of a high-level British
government advisory panel on racial equality.

"I'm living in a multicultural part of Sheffield," Bhogal told United
Methodist News Service during the 2003 British Methodist Conference. "I've
got my ear to the ground and I can bring local concerns and local views (to
the government)."

A past British Methodist president and the first person of color elected to
that role, Bhogal said he has been badgering government officials here for
years, particularly on issues of justice and fairness for asylum seekers. 

"As I see it there are some 50 million people seeking protection - people who
have lost the safety of their country, living both inside and outside those
countries," Bhogal said. "The vast majority of those people are being cared
for by neighboring countries. The poorest countries have the biggest burden
of protection and hospitality. ... A trickle come to the wealthier nations.
We could be more hospitable and take a greater share of the burden."

At its 2003 conference in July, the British Methodist Church released a
churchwide report on racial justice. It stated that "those seeking asylum are
demonized as bogus, illegal immigrants and economic migrants scrounging at
Britain's 'capital' gate and threatening British culture." The report warns
that these widespread views signal the emergence of a new racism and new
violence toward people of color and those perceived as "from outside or not
like us."

"There's a lot of misinformation and mythology around on the issue of
asylum," Bhogal observed. "The perception over all is that these people are
all over here living off the welfare systems and jumping the queue for good
housing and jobs." 

According to the British Refugee Council, a recent MORI poll shows that
people in the United Kingdom vastly overestimate the numbers of asylum
seekers and refugees in Britain. On average, they thought that 23 percent of
the world's refugees and asylum seekers are in the United Kingdom, more than
10 times greater than the reality, which is actually less than 2 percent. Per
capita, Britain ranks 10th among European Union countries in the number of
asylum seekers it accepts.

Naboth Muchopa, the Methodist Church secretary for race relations and author
of the racial justice report, says this misinformation and the British
government's policy of dispersing asylum seekers around Britain is creating a
"blame the victim" mentality resulting in violence. During the last two weeks
in June, asylum seekers were attacked in two separate racially motivated
incidents in Plymouth in southwest England and in Wrexham near the northern
English-Welsh border.

"This is about the attitudes of those in communities receiving (asylum
seekers)," Muchopa said.

Both Muchopa and Bhogal say churches are involved in helping asylum seekers
but also acknowledge that Methodists have a way to go in combating other
manifestations of racism in their own midst. 

"For example," Muchopa said, "visibility for blacks and Asians in the church
is not what we'd like it to be. ... There must be a big political will in the
rest of the church, and we must put resources into raising this issue."

Bhogal is more blunt. "We've been saying this for decades. Now we want to see
evidence from the Methodist Conference that what we are saying is heard. ...
We are all equally a part of the body of Christ. That leaves no room for
racial injustice or any injustice for that matter in our church."

# # #

*LaCamera is a United Methodist News Service correspondent based in England.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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