Bishops From Church Of England Send Letter To British Prime Minister David Cameron Over Refugees Crisis But Gets No Reply; Bishops Express Dismay And Disclose Private Letter
Bishops from the Church of England sent a private letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron in September. Reports revealed that the letter aims to deliver a plea to Cameron to take in more refugees in the country.
However, the Bishops did not get a response from the British prime minister which compelled them to disclose the private letter.
The letter appeals to the British government to increase the number of refugees it will accept for resettlement from 20,000 to 50,000 individuals for over the next five years. The letter to Cameron also states that the churches are willing to do their part on migrant crisis.
After the letter was made public, a bishop of Durham issues a dispatch expressing his dismay of not getting a reply from the British prime minister, The Guardian forecasted.
"It is disheartening that we have not received any substantive reply despite an assurance from the prime minister that one would be received," Rt Rev Paul Butler says. "There is an urgent and compelling moral duty to act, which we as bishops are offering to facilitate alongside others from across civil society."
Butler goes on, "There is a real urgency to this issue with those increasingly being forced from their land as their homes are literally bombed into the ground. As the fighting intensifies, as the sheer scale of human misery becomes greater, the government's response seems increasingly inadequate to meet the scale and severity of the problem."
Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon tells BBC News that "no country in Europe is doing more in Syria" than the UK.
"We're spending a £1bn helping refugees in refugee camps and now we've announced we'll take 5,000 a year for the rest of this parliament which is a number we think we can reasonably accommodate."
"The message to the bishops is no one is doing more than we are to help the refugees in their camps," Fallon adds.
