Labour ‘will look at’ closing Christian conversion loophole used by asylum seekers
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Labour will “look at” closing loopholes used by asylum seekers claiming to have converted to Christianity, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
He said the party would not “have any truck” with abuses of the asylum system that allowed fake converts to secure the right to remain.
The Labour leader made the comments on Times Radio in the wake of the Clapham chemical attack, suspected to have been carried out by Abdul Ezedi, a 35-year-old Afghan migrant who entered the UK in a lorry and secured asylum after claiming to have converted from Islam to Christianity.
Friends of Ezedi told The Telegraph last week that he remained a “good Muslim” who would buy half a halal sheep every fortnight, despite his apparent conversion.
He was rejected twice at appeal for asylum including a second time when he claimed to have converted, but secured it on the third attempt after a priest vouched that he was “wholly committed” to the Christian faith despite having two sex convictions in the UK.
Police have offered a £20,000 reward for information leading to Ezedi’s arrest after the chemical attack on a mother who has been left with life-changing injuries and her two daughters, three and eight, who are less seriously injured than previously thought.
Asked if Labour would look at the use of conversion by asylum seekers who go on to commit crimes, Sir Keir said: “Of course, we have got to look at it.”
He added: “Any abuse of the system needs to be looked at. I don’t think we should have any truck with this.”
Ezedi arrived illegally in the UK in the back of a lorry in 2016, claiming his life would be in danger if he was returned to Afghanistan.
Despite being convicted of a sex offence two years later, he went on to claim asylum successfully in either 2021 or 2022.
In an article for The Telegraph, Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, said that during her time in office she “became aware of churches around the country facilitating industrial-scale bogus asylum claims”, with migrants “directed to these churches as a one-stop shop to bolster their asylum case”.
The Telegraph revealed on Sunday that 40 asylum seekers on the Bibby barge in Dorset have converted or are converting to Christianity, nearly a seventh of the 300 migrants on board.
The Church of England has rejected Mrs Braverman’s criticism, with the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, writing in the Telegraph: “We are not politicians, and we know that to be involved in political debate can be bruising.
“But those who have claimed a link between the abuse of our asylum system and the action of bishops in Parliament are simply wrong.
“It is saddening to see this being implied by former holders of senior ministerial office, who have had opportunity but not sought to raise these concerns with senior clergy before.”
A Church of England spokesman has said: “It is the role of the Home Office, and not the Church, to vet asylum seekers and judge the merits of their individual cases.”
