Go Home campaign a 'recipe for racial hatred'.

 Wednesday September 11 2013

The convener of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council has called the Home Office’s ‘Go Home’ campaign against illegal immigrants a ‘recipe for stirring up racial and religious hatred’.

The Rev Sally Foster-Fulton added that, instead, there should be a publicity campaign which said: “Welcome. You’re safe now. You’re home.”

Last week it emerged that posters in the UK Border Agency’s office in Glasgow were encouraging asylum seekers to ‘ask about going home’. That followed the controversy over advertising vans featuring the ‘Go Home’ message, aimed at illegal immigrants, which were deployed in London over the summer.

Writing in her blog, Mrs Foster-Fulton said: “Whilst the Home Office should rightly be helping those who want to return home to do so, they should not be threatening people into doing, or in such a crass manner. Put yourselves in the shoes of an asylum seeker and ask yourself, how would you feel? Imagine you are from Syria, where it would be impossible to simply board a plane to Damascus, and where persecution, torture or death might be all that awaits you.

“Jesus was a refugee, as a child his parents fled to Egypt to avoid the King’s wrath. In an age before nation-states and international conventions, his message was simple; first love God, then love one another. Treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself. Every human being has innate worth, we are all sacred as we are all made in the image of God. So we must treat one another humanely, with all loving kindness and mercy and compassion.”

Post Tags: refugees, sally foster-fulton

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