The Church of England has been accused of helping asylum seekers to stay in Great Britain after claims it is a “conveyor belt” for “fake” baptisms.
The accusations came following a crime by Abdul Ezedi, who attacked his former partner and their two children in a chemical attack in London last month.
The woman was left with “life-changing” damage to her face.
Ezedi evaded police capture, but it’s now believed to have jumped into the Thames River.
According to funding from a recent investigation, Ezedi was allowed in the UK after his third attempt to gain asylum because he had converted to Christianity, according to the Guardian.
However, The Telegraph reported that Ezedi was known as “a good Muslim” by his friends.
Rev. Matthew Firth told The Telegraph that baptisms to aid asylum seekers are a “conveyor belt and veritable industry of asylum baptisms.”
The former Church of England priest, who is now a clergyman with the Free Church of England, said he dealt with about 20 cases of asylum seekers asking for a baptism so they could avoid being deported,
He estimates that at least hundreds and perhaps thousands of asylum baptisms performed.
Firth accused the Church of England of supporting “people who do not have pure motives.”
“It is not direct wrongdoing from the Church, but it is complicity, which is not right,” he said.
He said he baptized some asylum seekers at St. Cuthbert’s Church in Darlington in January 2018 but began requiring six months of attendance prior to baptism.
Firth said he was cold-shouldered” by senior clergy members and some people in his congregation.
Church leaders failed to blow the whistle on the “scam” because “it is wonderful when you have lots of people who are adults who have been baptized,” he said.
“It’s a combination of being naive but also turning a blind eye to what is going on. We have to be discerning,” he said.
“All I’m choosing is not to be complicit in dishonesty. Choosing not to be complicit in what is quite a serious situation in terms of security matters but also undermining of culture.”
Meanwhile, Paul Butler, the bishop of Durham, slammed Sirth’s claims, calling them “imaginative” and “some distance from reality,” according to the Guardian.
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, issued a statement saying there had been a “mischaracterization of the role of churches and faith groups in the asylum system.”
“It is the job of the Government to protect our borders and of the courts to judge asylum cases. The Church is called to love mercy and do justice,” he said.
It's worth remembering that this comes not long after it was revealed that the Church of England helped Abdul Ezedi, the London acid attacker, gain asylum by supporting his claim to have "converted" to Christianity in 2020. The C of E also supported the asylum application of Emad… https://t.co/uKExkXPR7L
— RAW EGG NATIONALIST (@Babygravy9) February 10, 2024
According to an Op-Ed in the Telegraph, former home Secretary Suella Braverman likened the process of obtaining asylum to “racketeering,” adding that churches have been “facilitating industrial-scale bogus asylum claims.”
“They are well-known within the migrant communities and, upon arrival in the UK, migrants are directed to these churches as a one-stop shop to bolster their asylum case,” she wrote.
“Attend Mass once a week for a few months, befriend the vicar, get your baptism date in the diary and, bingo, you’ll be signed off by a member of the clergy that you’re now a God-fearing Christian who will face certain persecution if removed to your Islamic country of origin,” she wrote.
READ: German Police Receive ‘Woke’ Language Guide: “Migrant,” “Refugee,” “Asylum” All Prohibited
