Former home secretaries Suella Braverman and Priti Patel have accused British churches of supporting “bogus” asylum claimsWriting for the Telegraph, Braverman claimed that the church sponsored false claims on an “industrial scale” whilst Patel accused its leaders of “political activism”Their comments come as police continue the hunt for suspected Clapham attacker Abdul EzediThe 35-year-old former Afghani national had two claims for British asylum turned down before he claimed his adopted Christianity left him vulnerable to persecution
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00:00 Former Home Secretaries Suela Braverman and Priti Patel have accused British churches
00:04 of supporting bogus asylum claims.
00:07 Writing for The Telegraph, Braverman claimed that the church sponsored false claims on
00:11 an industrial scale, whilst Patel accused its leaders of political activism.
00:15 Their comments come as police continue the hunt for suspected Clapham attacker Abdul
00:20 Aziz.
00:21 The 35-year-old former Afghani national had two claims for British asylum turned down
00:26 before he claimed his adopted Christianity left him vulnerable to persecution.
00:30 This led to his third application being accepted, although it's currently unknown who backed
00:34 up his claim to have changed religion.
00:36 Braverman, now a backbench MP, called the process a scam and restated her wish for the
00:42 UK to leave the European Court of Human Rights.
00:45 She was sacked from her cabinet position in November after she was accused of stoking
00:49 community tensions in her allegations about the Met Police.
00:52 Dame Priti, Home Secretary from 2019 to 2022, echoed the comments and pointed to the example
00:59 of Liverpool women's hospital bomber Ahmad Jamil Al-Sualmian.
01:03 Al-Sualmian, who detonated the car bomb in 2021, had been confirmed at Liverpool Cathedral
01:09 in 2017.
01:11 In the case of Azidi, it's not known who approved his asylum or which church he attended.
01:16 A Church of England spokesman said "It is the role of the Home Office and not the church
01:21 to vet asylum seekers and judge the merits of their individual cases."
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