Viewpoint: Its not English

Image: CCME

Fr Philip Dyer-Perry, Parish Priest at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Staines, West London, writes:

Last week we celebrated the Feast of St George, Patron Saint of England. Here at Our Lady of the Rosary we are an international and multi-cultural community, but we are also so very English. There is something uniquely English about how we are welcoming to all, about our 'live and let live' approach to things we don't always understand or agree with, and about our default attitude of politeness and discretion. Our Englishness is a direct result of being such a diverse community.

With this in mind, there is something incredibly un-English about the government's plan, revived last week, to forcibly remove asylum seekers, who have made a perilous and desperate journey to get to another country, namely Rwanda. In a matter of weeks, an as-yet unknown airline will fly an aircraft from an as-yet not disclosed airport in order to remove people, against their will, to Rwanda. There are questions about whether Rwanda is safe or not, but the real issue is that even if we were flying them to sunny Spain, it is still immoral and wrong. This is not how we treat people, it is not how we protect some of the world's poorest citizens, it is absolutely shameful.

The best way to prevent small boat crossings is to establish safe and legal routes into the UK. Migration is and will always be a global phenomenon. Put simply, people move. Locally people move house to get into the catchment of a good school. Nationally people move to be close to relatives or to avail of new job opportunities. Internationally people move for similar reasons, but also to flee war, unjust regimes or the effects of climate change. Most of us will have to move at some point in our lives. If we want a world where people don't migrate in such large numbers, we have to create this world. This means we don't export arms to unjust regimes, that we don't exploit cheap labour, and that we don't bury our heads in the sand when it comes to protecting our planet's future or investing in our children's education.

Those who vilify people who arrive here on small boats, who blame them for the problems our country faces, who think the solution is harder borders and tougher measures are, to put it politely, deluded. Such measures may sound good in an election campaign, but they do nothing to build a safer and more prosperous Great Britain or to secure our future for our children and grandchildren.
Chances are that neither the government nor the leaders of the opposition parties will be reading this part of the parish newsletter and it is unlikely to be picked up by global media networks - but we are the Body of Christ, the global network of Jesus' followers, the branches of the one true vine. We need to know where we stand on this. We need to be prepared to use our voice. This is where the mud hits the fan when it comes to our belief in the dignity of every single person.