In a statement, which confirmed the worst fears of many Christians, the Tory leader said the reason for the proposal was because it is not possible to admit everyone with a deserving case. He stated that the party was committed to limiting the number of people to be granted asylum every year – down to figures around 20,000.
Following the Conservative Party conference, Michael Howard alarmingly stated that if the Conservatives were returned to government that he would pull Britain out of the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees, that is, the international agreement under which member states of the United Nations provide protection and safety for those fleeing persecution and in many cases certain death.
However, the Churches’ Commission for Racial Justice said such plans were ‘alarming and dangerous’.
In response to these comments from the Conservative leader, Rev Arlington Trotman a spokesman for the Churches' Commission for Racial Justice (part of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland) said, “This is extremely worrying. This quota is an arbitrary limit, on the number of refugees that can be offered protection. As the fourth largest Economy in the world, shouldn’t we contribute to solving this problem? Considering our position as one of the richest countries, our moral assistance would not seem unreasonable.”
On ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme, Michael Howard further stated his wholly unsympathetic stance: “Today there are millions of people in the world who could probably justly claim that they were being persecuted. We cannot possibly take them all into this country. In all honesty you cannot expect us, a small and crowded island, to accept a wholly disproportionate burden,” he tried to reason.
The Tory leader concluded, unless there was an “unforeseen International crisis” a Conservative party-run Britain would turn asylum seekers away once the annual quota had been reached.
Mr Trotman said, “Withdrawal from the Refugee Convention would mean that Britain would not maintain that cherished tradition because the Tories would have denied a place of safety and support to the most vulnerable people.”
“The Convention offers a measure of protection to those seeking refuge, but CCRJ believes that, as Christians and people of faith, Britain has a moral duty to offer compassion, justice, and at the very least a modicum of peace to those who are oppressed and pushed out of their homelands,” said Trotman.
”As the minimum “guarantee” that tortured and abused people would eventually find safety, the Convention needs to be strengthened, not weakened or abandoned.”
Tunde Jacobs
Christian Today Correspondent