Abdul Ezedi revelations spark demands for probe into Christian conversions by asylum seekers

Labour has challenged Home Secretary James Cleverly to explain why the Home Office did not remove Abdul Ezedi in 2018
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Ministers and Church leaders were on Wednesday facing growing pressure for a new investigation into Christian conversions by asylum seekers after court papers revealed that the Clapham chemical attacker was given refugee status despite lying repeatedly about his life.

Abdul Ezedi, who threw a corrosive substance over a mother and her two daughters in Clapham in January, had his asylum application approved in 2020 after two previous failed rejections when a judge accepted that he had converted to Christianity.

The decision, which was taken after the judge received testimony from a Baptist minister backing Ezedi remaining in Britain, came despite him having an earlier conviction for indecent exposure and sexual assault and the conclusion of another judge that Ezedi, who had come to the UK from Afghanistan in 2016, had lied in his earlier failed applications.

Abdul Ezedi was caught on CCTV in the hours after the Clapham attack
PA Wire

But the newly disclosed court documents about Ezedi – whose body was found in the Thames last month – prompted a new call on Wednesday for a full investigation into the use of Christian conversions in the asylum process.

“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,” said Tory MP Tim Loughton, a member of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.

Shadow home Secretary Yvette Cooper added: “The Home Secretary must explain why his department failed to remove Ezedi from the UK in the two years after his first asylum claim was rejected - particularly after he was convicted of sexual offences.”

The ceremony was reportedly conducted at the request of his friends and family and follows earlier claims that he had been attending Muslim worship following his conversion to Christianity and the success of his asylum claim.

The Church of England has insisted that only a small number of asylum seekers have converted to Christianity and insisted that it has seen no evidence to justify claims of widespread abuse of the system.

Abdul Ezedi handing out flyers for his church
Judicial Office/PA Wire

Meanwhile, a minister has claimed that the Government’s Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill will help to prevent future cases similar to that of Ezedi once it becomes law.

The Bill is currently caught in a legislative tussle between the House of Commons and House of Lords over concerns about human rights and judicial oversight.

Science minister Andrew Griffith told Sky News: “We can’t run an asylum system based on credulous clerics and lefty lawyers. That is why we are fundamentally reforming it.”

Mr Griffith said the proposed law would “apply to this case, as it would many other cases that people are concerned about”.

He added: “That is the law that we are trying to get through the House of Lords right now.

“We are a couple of busloads of peers away in terms of the votes to be able to get that through the House of Lords and then that will create the system that we want, that would have prevented this tragic case.”

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