Churches risk undermining asylum system after Clapham attacker’s conversion, says Home Office

Churches risk undermining the integrity of the asylum system, Home Office sources have said, as it emerged the Clapham chemical attacker was allowed to remain in Britain despite lying and failing a Christianity test.

Immigration files published on Tuesday showed that convicted sex offender Abdul Ezedi was granted asylum after he claimed he had converted to Christianity and his application was backed by a Baptist church minister.

The minister’s evidence was critical in persuading an immigration judge to allow his application, despite a Home Office warning that he was “using religion for his own ends” after he gave incorrect answers to questions about Christianity. Evidence presented in court also showed that he had lied persistently about his background.

A source close to James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, said he had called a meeting with the “vast majority” of Christian churches following Ezedi’s death.

The source said: “We wanted to relay the potential damage to those churches of being seen, rightly or wrongly, as acting against the integrity of our asylum system, where Christian conversion has been brought up at appeal. In this case, the consequences were appalling.

“That reputational risk is only amplified by the fact someone who denied knowledge of Ezedi at the time had in fact known of him within their church, and had supported and vouched for him.”

Ezedi, a 35-year-old Afghan national, had twice been refused asylum by the Home Office, and was considered so dangerous by the Baptist Church that it drew up a “safeguarding contract” for the safety of parishioners over his sex assault and exposure convictions.

He came to the UK illegally in 2016 and died in the River Thames while on the run after attacking a 31-year-old mother and her two daughters with a corrosive substance in Clapham on Jan 31.

Ezedi was granted asylum by the immigration tribunal judge on his third appeal in November 2020 after he claimed he had converted to Christianity and would be persecuted if he returned to Afghanistan.

Tim Loughton, a member of the home affairs select committee, called for a full investigation. “The details of this shocking case go to underline the suspicions we have had all along that migrants are playing the Christianity card to game the system in too many cases,” he said.

“But there is a worrying disconnect here between the Home Office who look at these cases rigorously and decide there is not a credible claim, then on the same evidence tribunals seem to think they know better and overrule the detailed work that the Home Office has already done.

“Clearly the system is not working properly. We need to have a full investigation into why it is that in too many cases, tribunals think they know better and are overruling the experts in the immigration service.”

Church accused over ‘conveyor belt’ of baptisms

The comments come after the Church of England faced accusations from a priest that it had become complicit in a “conveyor belt” of asylum seeker baptisms used by migrants to remain in the UK.

Rev Matthew Firth, who was priest in charge at a parish in the North of England, told The Telegraph earlier this year that he had discovered around 20 cases where failed asylum seekers sought baptisms at his church to support their appeals for leave to remain.

The Church of England had previously said that “it is the role of the Home Office, and not the Church, to vet asylum seekers”.

The files show that Ezedi persistently lied about his background, including about whether he had worked in the UK before. A judge who rejected his asylum appeal in February 2017 ruled that he had fabricated accounts of his background that created a “wholly unreliable and inconsistent” picture that was “lacking credibility”.

He gave differing accounts of how his brother died, changed his story about whether he was a Sunni or Shia Muslim and claimed he had never worked in the UK when he had had a job as a car mechanic, according to the documents. He also claimed that he had depression and suicidal thoughts, and that he had been shot by the Taliban.

The Home Office also told the tribunal that Ezedi had been unable to explain the reasons for his conversion, or demonstrate a clear understanding of Christian principles and beliefs during an interview. 

Despite concerns about his honesty, Judge William O’Hanlon believed his conversion was “genuine” and allowed Ezedi’s appeal on asylum and human rights grounds, overturning the Home Office’s rejection of his claim.

Judge O’Hanlon conceded that while Ezedi had been discredited on multiple occasions, he decided to allow the appeal on the strength of the “most compelling evidence” from Rev Roy Merrin, a Baptist minister.

Rev Merrin admitted he was aware of people who fraudulently claimed conversion with “ulterior motives” but told the tribunal he did not consider Ezedi as such a person. Rev Merrin had attended tribunals on four previous occasions to support Christian convert asylum seekers and wrote in support of Ezedi’s conversion.

Judge O’Hanlon granted asylum after concluding Ezedi’s conversion was “genuine”.

He said: “Having considered all of the evidence before in the round, notwithstanding my concerns as to the honesty of [Ezedi] in relation to certain aspects of his account, I find that [Ezedi] has been consistent in his evidence with regard to his conversion to Christianity.”

Ezedi only revealed that he had converted to Christianity after his first asylum appeal had been rejected in 2017, claiming he had “forgotten” to tell officials about his alleged attendance at Grange Road Baptist Church in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear.

Ezedi’s claim was supported by letters from a Catholic church Justice and Peace Refugee Project, the British Red Cross, and Grange Road Baptist Church representatives. It included pictures of him distributing Christian leaflets in Newcastle city centre and of him being baptised.

Multiple mistakes on Christianity questions

In its evidence to the immigration tribunal, the Home Office said Ezedi had been unable to explain the reasons for his conversion, or demonstrate a clear understanding of Christian principles and beliefs.

Home Office officials told the tribunal that they did not accept his conversion was “genuine and long-lasting”, that he previously lied and continued to be “dishonest” and was prepared to “use religion for his own ends”.

In his Home Office interview, he insisted he had read the bible every day for three years, but asked what the Old Testament was about, he replied: “Jesus Christ.”

Asked to name Jesus’s main followers, he replied: “Simon, Peter, Jacob, Andrew…12 people, Disciples.” Grilled about what God created on the third day, he answered: “Good Friday and Easter Sunday and Resurrection Day.”

A few days after the Home Office interview, Ezedi’s immigration lawyers sent a statement on his behalf blaming the interpreter for his mistakes and correcting some of the factual errors. In the statement, he wrote: “The interpreter was Kurdish Iranian and I could not understand the dialect. I couldn’t understand his pronunciation.”

Ezedi’s claim for asylum had been initially rejected in May 2016, with an appeal dismissed in February 2017. However, Ezedi lodged a further appeal in March 2019, a year after he was convicted of sexual assault and indecent exposure in 2018 and handed a two-year suspended jail sentence.

Because he was not jailed, he was still eligible to claim asylum. However, it was only on his third appeal that he revealed he had converted to Christianity.

Asked by the judge to explain why he did not mention it in his 2017 appeal, Judge O’Hanlon said his “response was somewhat vague, namely he had ‘forgotten’ to do so”.

However, the judge said he “did not find anything adverse” to Ezedi’s asylum claim as he “had only started attending the church in February of 2016”. He was baptised in June 2018 after attending the evangelical Alpha course.

Judge O’Hanlon admitted Ezedi had “not been honest” in “several” aspects of his account but said: “I remind myself of the fact that [Ezedi] may not have been honest about certain aspects of his claim does not necessarily mean that he is lying about other matters, in this case his claimed Christian conversion.”

He cited a previous Supreme Court judgment involving a Somalian asylum seeker, saying: “We must be very careful not to dismiss an appeal just because an appellant has told lies. An appellant’s own evidence has to be considered in the round with other evidence.”

Church agreed to let sex offender attend services under contract

Ezedi was allowed to continue attending church under a special contract drawn up by the Baptist church, newly released documents show.

A 2019 Baptists Together contract set out “agreed boundaries for the welfare and safety” of Ezedi and other worshippers at a church in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

The two-page document outlines how he was not allowed to be alone at Grange Road Baptist Church and had to be chaperoned at all times.

The contract, renewed every six months, says: “This agreement is being put in place because of a conviction of sexual assault and exposure.”

It required Ezedi “to be accountable” to “carefully chosen individuals”, all of whom were men, who would “support” him.

It adds: “They are aware of the conviction and will endeavour to pastorally listen to you, care for you, advise you and pray for you.”

Ezedi was given a suspended sentence in 2018 for grabbing a woman’s buttocks and exposing himself at a Newcastle bus stop.

The full indictment said he “intentionally touched” a woman in “circumstances being that the touching was sexual” and non-consensual between Feb and June 2017.

The second charge stated that he “intentionally exposed his genitals intending that someone would see them and be caused alarm or distress” on June 5 2017. The indictment clarified the offence as involving “masturbating”.

At the time of the offences, he was living at a hostel in the Fenham area of Newcastle, working in a pizza take away in Jarrow and attending church there.

He was required to sign a document pledging only to go to the church on Sundays if he stayed “in the vicinity of at least one of the male supporters”.

He vowed: “I will only come to church for the Sunday service. I will not enter the church without one of my male supporters being present. I will stay beside my supporter all the time. I will leave the church when my supporter leaves or before them.”

His pledges included agreeing to “not sit alone in the church at any time” and “any concerns” about his behaviour would be “shared securely” during “pastoral care meetings”.

The suspended sentence Ezedi received at Newcastle Crown Court was not severe enough to reach the threshold for deportation.

The victim of his assault later revealed how he began pestering her for sex soon after they became friends.

“If he’d been jailed for attacking me then surely he would have been deported,” the woman told The Sun. “But the failings didn’t end there because someone from a church gave him a reference so he could gain asylum.”