Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Justin Welby is wrong about Rwanda

(Photo: Getty)

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Easter sermon was quite something; forcefully delivered, arrestingly put. At the heart of it was his corruscating criticism of the Government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda; it was framed to capture the news agenda and released in advance of its delivery.

‘The details [of the plan] are for politics and politicians’, he said. ‘The principle must stand the judgement of God and it cannot. It cannot carry the weight of resurrection justice, of life conquering death. It cannot carry the weight of the resurrection that was first to the least valued, for it privileges the rich and strong. And it cannot carry the weight of our national responsibility as a country formed by Christian values, because subcontracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God who himself took responsibility for our failures.’

I am not so stupid as to suggest that clergy should stay out of politics

I’m not sure myself that Christ was crucified so that asylum seekers from France should be admitted to Britain. The Archbishop prudently left the details to the politicians. Well, the crux of the thing is precisely in the detail. The people arriving in boats are not actually fleeing persecution; they are fleeing EU countries where they are not persecuted at all.

I accept that some of them have weathered dreadful experiences. I know a health care assistant who noted a marked increase in the number of asylum seekers coming to his clinic in west London in recent months, with a peak before Christmas. And he did indeed treat people with the marks of burning and shooting and torture. The worst case had actually come from Iraq via …Denmark.

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