Speaking after yesterday's tragic loss of life in the English Channel among immigrants seeking a new life in Britain, the President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Revd. Dr. Sahr Yambasu said: 

“I am shocked and saddened by today's tragedy in the English Channel and yet, regrettably, not surprised as unscrupulous traffickers, taking exorbitant sums of money from people living in despair, play appalling games with human lives every day.”

“These people sought a new and a better life in the UK, took what for many will be the only course of action open to them, and have paid a terrible, terrible price in search of peace and freedom.”

“It should be incumbent on all governments to ensure that there is a safe haven for those fleeing persecution, conflict and horrendous deprivation, while also working globally to solve those societal and governmental wrongs that have blighted the homelands of those who roam the earth displaced and stateless.”

“I call upon the UK Government to urgently review its immigration policies. make safe and legal routes of ingress more accessible and consider whether it is in the interests of a troubled world to create yet another hostile environment for refugees who have known little but hostility.”

"I am reminded of the words of the poet Clemence Dane who spoke of England's multicultural history of aiding refugees in her poem of the 1940s 'The Welcoming Land':

'Then came the exiles who fled from death [...] to the wise island, and drew sobbing breath in the easy air [...] and wept, and worshipped the land. They gave it their craft, their skill, their sweat - they spent their lives to make lovelier yet [...] the people's England - the welcoming land.'

"As one who has fled war and terror from my own country, my thoughts, and those of our Methodist people in Ireland, are with those who perished today, and we ask God's forgiveness on those unprincipled souls who let them be taken by the Channel."

ENDS

25/11/2021

Issued by:
Rev. Roy Cooper

Press Officer
T: 07710 945104
E: pressofficer@irishmethodist.org