Jacob Rees-Mogg defended the government’s plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda as an “almost Easter story of redemption” after the policy was criticized as “depressing”, “disturbing” and ungodly by church leaders.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, used a scathing Easter address to say that the scheme “must endure God’s judgment – and it cannot.”
“Transferring our responsibilities to subcontractors, even to a country that strives to do well, such as Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God, who himself took responsibility for our failures,” he said.
Welby’s intervention came when it turned out that the Home Office civil servant said there was no evidence to prove that the 4,000-mile transport plan to Rwanda would act as a deterrent – and therefore not you can be sure that it will be a good use of public money.
Reese-Mogg, the Brexit Minister for Opportunities, said the Church of England’s top cleric “did not understand” politics and was, in fact, an “almost Easter redemption story” for Rwanda.
The former mayor said that the United Kingdom “gives Rwanda an opportunity” and that the policy “should therefore be a good thing”.
Speaking on Radio 4’s The World This Weekend, he said: “I don’t think he understands what politics is trying to achieve and it’s not a disclaimer. This is, in fact, a very difficult responsibility.
“The problem we are dealing with is that people are risking their lives at the hands of human traffickers to enter this country illegally. It is not the illegal part of this now, and the promotion of human traffickers must be stopped. “
He added that “90% of the people who come are young men who, coming through human traffickers, jump in the queue for others.”
“In this way, they not only risk their lives, but also support organized crime. “What we need to do is focus on the legal roads to this country, of which there are quite a number,” he said.
“Opposition to the nature of God”: British archbishops criticize plan of asylum seekers in Rwanda – video
Welby joined in his criticism of York Archbishop Stephen Cotrell, who described the policy as “depressing and anxious”.
In an Easter sermon at the York Temple, Cottrell said: “We can do better than that. We can do better than this thanks to what we see in Jesus Christ, the risen Christ, with a vision of our humanity where barriers are broken, not new obstacles placed in the way.
“After all, there is no such thing in the law as an illegal asylum seeker. We must fight the people who exploit them, not our sisters and brothers in need. We do not need to build more barriers and shrink in the darkness of the shadows they create.
“Do we want to continue to be known as a country that opens the right, legitimate paths for all those fleeing violence, conflict and oppression, not only those in Ukraine but also those fleeing other conflicts and the effects of climate change?” ? ”
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