Refugees seeking asylum on religious grounds quizzed on 'Bible trivia'
‘When is Pentecost?’ among questions put to people fleeing persecution after converting to Christianity, MPs say
Harriet Sherwood
Tuesday 7 June 2016 14.03 EDT
Last modified on Tuesday 7 June 2016 17.55 EDT
Refugees applying for asylum in the UK on the grounds of conversion to Christianity are being interrogated on “Bible trivia” by immigration officials, according to MPs.
Questions such as, “What are the 10 commandments?”, “When is Pentecost?” and “How many books are there in the Bible?”, are being put to asylum seekers in an attempt to test claims of religious conversion, says a report published by the all-party parliamentary group for international freedom of religion or belief. Refugees face the rejection of their applications if they do not answer correctly.
The report, Fleeing Persecution: Asylum Claims in the UK on Religious Freedom Grounds, published on Tuesday by the all-party group and the Asylum Advocacy Group, said that questions from crib sheets were “a very poor way of assessing a conversion asylum claim and result in wrong decisions and expensive appeals”.
Refugees seeking asylum on the grounds of religious persecution include Muslim converts to Christianity, Ahmadiyya Muslims, Hindus and people of other faiths or no faith. Churches in the UK and across Europe have reported rising numbers of asylum seekers, especially from the Middle East and Central Asia, among their congregations over recent months.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/07/refugees-asylum-religious-grounds-quizzed-on-bible-trivia
https://freedomdeclared.org/media/asylumreport.pdf