Pew Research Center: Christians make up the majority of global migrants, but the proportion of Muslims is rising in various regions, showing diverse religious trends among migrants.
Tag: christian
Christianity Today: A recent report titled “Closed Doors” reveals a decline in the resettlement of persecuted Christians in the US over the past five years due to the effects of the pandemic and changes in refugee resettlement policies. Despite rising persecution levels globally, the number of Christian refugees admitted to the US has significantly decreased, highlighting concerns about religious freedom and America’s historical role as a safe haven for refugees.
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63 religious refugees detained
Bangkok Post: Sixty-three Chinese religious refugees have been detained in Thailand while seeking asylum, underscoring tensions between international refugee policies and local enforcement practices.
UNHCR: Four individuals fled their homes due to religious persecution in Afghanistan, Myanmar, the Central African Republic, and Iraq. The challenges they faced and the assistance provided by UNHCR, emphasize the urgent need for support to help refugees rebuild their lives.
Christian Today: Christians in Afghanistan are living in great fear after the Taliban’s rapid takeover. The organization, Release International, warns of a likely increase in attacks towards anyone who identifies as Christian. A spokesperson from Release International expresses that, with advances in the Internet and women’s education, the church is better resourced and equipped to handle the challenge than before.
Religion News: The State Department is not permitting statistics about refugees admitted into the United States, including their religious affiliations, to be publicly available. There are two main reasons for the change: the development of a new information technology system, which will not be completed until December 2021, and concerns about privacy.
ABC News: Immigration experts tell ABC News that government workers can likely determine whether those seeking refugee status in the United States are lying about their religious affiliations. Royce Murray, policy director for the American Immigration Council, claims that the Department of Homeland Security is highly trained to ask for evidence supporting an asylum seeker’s claim concerning their religious persecution.
The Guardian: Refugees applying for asylum in the UK on the grounds of conversion to Christianity are being interrogated on “Bible trivia” by immigration officials. Questions such as the following—“What are the Ten 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.
Religious Refugees 