Deportations

How evil is our Government on the question of deportation? There have been enough cases where Christians genuinely frightened of persecution, even including death, have been treated with shameful ignorance by the Home Office (or whatever it’s called this week). A friend was involved in this many times when he was a minister in Doncaster: they had a number of genuine converts from Islam, and formed a new congregation as a result. Now I read this in yesterday’s Newswatch email from the Bible Society (the text is pasted from the email, as there isn’t a link to give):

DEATH THREAT CHRISTIAN IS
DEPORTED
A Nigerian Christian who
received death threats on four occasions has been deported after the failure of
her 18-month asylum claim. A representative of the Baptist Church in Leeds
where Grace Cole had been a valued member said she was ‘ashamed’ at the way the
Home Office treated Mrs Cole and her children. Her case reflects calls for
reform of the UK’s ‘inhumane’ asylum system, made by West Yorkshire Ecumenical
Council last week. Mrs Cole was threatened on four occasions in Nigeria and the
Gambia after avoiding an arranged marriage to the son of a Muslim imam.
Disowned by her family after becoming a Christian, she was said to be ‘very
frightened’ at the prospect of returning to Nigeria. On a wider front,
Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports a fresh wave of attacks on churches and
Christians in two of Nigeria’s Muslim-dominated states and mounting tension in
a third.

Source: Baptist Times (14/2)

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