Church concern over Britain's treatment of refugees was voiced at the highest level on 25 January when the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Dr George Carey, and Cardinal Basil Hume of the Roman Catholic Church, held a joint meeting with a senior government minister.
The Anglican and Roman Catholic leaders' expression of concern to the Government, made with support from the Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council and the Chief Rabbi in the United Kingdom, came on the same day as an inquest jury in London ruled that a Nigerian asylum-seeker, Shiji Lapite, had been unlawfully killed in a struggle with police.
The jury in the four-day hearing heard that the two officers arresting Mr Lapite outside a late-night restaurant on suspicion of possessing crack cocaine feared for their lives. But the 34-year-old man was put into a neck hold and died from asphyxiation soon afterwards.
Mr Lapite's death in December 1994 has added poignancy because, just hours before, he was told he could stay in Britain pending an asylum hearing.
The British Churches' current concerns for refugees are caused by changes connected with the Asylum and Immigration Bill going through the British Parliament which will remove social security benefits from most asylum-seekers. Churches fear the measure will leave many refugees destitute, relying on soup kitchens, emergency hostels and blankets to survive on the streets.
After meeting Peter Lilley, Britain's Social Security Secretary, Archbishop Carey and Cardinal Hume issued a joint statement branding the changes "too inflexible". The two leaders acknowledged that "some of those who seek asylum at present are abusing the [benefit] system", but they expressed concern that "the proposed changes will deprive some genuine asylum-seekers of the means to pay for food and shelter, and are too inflexible to take account of individual cases of acute hardship".
David Haslam, secretary of the inter-denominational Churches Commission for Racial Justice (CCRJ), estimated that welfare changes coming into force on 5 February would affect most of the 2300 asylum-seekers arriving in Britain each month, as well as some refugees already in the country.