Case of bishop found guilty in court shows need to take stand on refugees

The bishop declared himself guilty of having given paid work to a refugee woman who had been refused asylum, although she could not be sent back to Eritrea, which has been described as one of the most repressive countries in the world.

Giving employment to a refused refugee had become illegal in Norway in 2011.

He made it clear that he did not want his age (84) or his position as a retired bishop to accord him any special privileges, and that he had “no regrets”.

He was given a suspended sentence of 45 days in jail and was ordered to pay a fine of Kroner 10,000 (£864), but was applauded as he left the court.

Bishop Stålsett has held high office in the church, not only as Bishop of Oslo from 1998–2005 but also earlier as general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, from 1985–1993.

He had a political career, having served in the 1970s as State Secretary at the Ministry of Church and Education, the protestant Church of Norway being a state church.

He is also a former member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The bishop told reporters that his action in giving work to the rejected refugee, Lula Tekle, was “a form of civil disobedience for which I’ll take responsibility”, adding: “I’m willing to take on that burden. It’s nothing compared with what undocumented immigrants have gone through for decades in Norway. They live in fear every day.”

He calls the law “immoral” because it leaves rejected refugees stranded in Norway with no working permission, no place to live, and none of the usual social benefits.

Norway’s Dagbladet newspaper commented that Lula Tekle is “one of around 3,000 long-standing, non-returnable asylum seekers who live as outcasts in the midst of us without the right to basic needs such as health care and income”.

The action of the bishop has raised debate in Norway about treating refused refugees in a humanitarian way.

Nearer home, also shortly before Christmas, Boris Johnson’s government ran into controversy as Labour peer Lord Dubs, who escaped Nazism to England as a child refugee in 1939, condemned the government for allegedly reneging on a commitment to continue, post-Brexit, the EU’s Dublin III regulation which provides for children who claim asylum and are unaccompanied to be transferred to a country where they have family members or close relatives.

However, the prime minister told the Commons: “We remain absolutely committed to ensuring that this country will continue to receive unaccompanied children. We have led Europe and received thousands already—this country has a proud record—and we will continue to do so.”

He he rejected “the idea that our proceedings must somehow be overseen and invigilated by the EU and measured against its benchmarks”.

Last Wednesday (January 8), the Conservatives’ Tim Loughton MP, told the Commons that there is “a potential problem with the full extent of those family members who qualify for family reunification” and also a problem with the rate at which potential applicants are processed in places such as Greece and Italy and with the cost of applications.

He said that the “whole scheme needs to be properly overhauled” but the SNP’s Joanna Cherry MP pointed out: “The UK’s immigration rules as they stand — apart from some very limited circumstances — allow children to reunite only with parents, not with other relatives, in the UK. Under the EU Dublin III regulation, children have a legal route to reunite with other family members such as siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and 95% of children that the charity Safe Passage supports to reunite with family safely and legally would be ineligible under the current UK rules.”

She was supported by the Strangford MP, the DUP’s Jim Shannon.

A recent Guardian report indicated the estimation that “about 200 child refugees are living in terrible conditions in northern France, with thousands more trapped in Italy and Greece, where camps are vastly overcrowded and conditions are described as dire. Many are eligible for transfer to the UK.”

Regarding the eventual post-Brexit outcome of the matter of unaccompanied refugee minors, and in particular those wanting to join their families in the UK, it is to be hoped that the principle of humanitarian treatment of refugees, such as was highlighted in the Bishop Stålsett case, will be adhered to properly.

This is certainly a space to be watched. To be a refugee left in a stateless limbo, or a child refugee wanting to escape horrific circumstances or to join parents in this country, are surely situations that warrant swift, just and effective treatment by the government.

Canon Ian Ellis is a former editor of The Church of Ireland Gazette.