Friends support call for revised refugee policy
Quakers join call for refugee policy that allows families to be reunited
Paul Parker, recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, is one of 200 leaders of faith communities who have signed an open letter to Theresa May calling for urgent changes to the government’s refugee policy, particularly to allow families to be reunited.
The signatories are headed by Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury and include leaders and representatives of the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist communities. In addition to Paul Parker, Quakers Juliet Prager, Helen Drewery and Fred Ashmore also signed the open letter.
‘As people of faith, we call on your government to urgently revise its policy towards refugees,’ the letter to the prime minister states. ‘The best of this country is represented by the generosity, kindness, solidarity and decency that Britain has at many times shown those fleeing persecution, even at times of far greater deprivation and difficulty than the present day. We rejoice in the mosaic of different faiths and British communities that we now represent.’
Paul Parker said: ‘Every refugee is a fellow child of God, and Quakers see that of God in all. We stand with people of all faiths and none in being willing to welcome refugees to Britain.’
‘The refugee crisis will not go away until we all work together to solve it.’
A campaign by the beneficiaries of Kindertransport, the programme to rescue thousands of Jewish children from the Nazis, has raised more than £50,000 in a week to help pay legal costs and support children in Calais.
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