Speaking to LBC, the Archbishop countered that he would have the same concerns if migrants were being deported to Sweden.
“My arguments with Rwanda have got nothing to do with it being Rwanda. If it was Sweden, I’d have the same problem,” he said.
He agreed the “immense evil” of people trafficking had to be tackled and that “open borders” were not the answer as neither Europe nor the US was big enough to be able to take the 100 million displaced people and refugees.
‘We need a better system’
But he said: “So what we’ve been arguing, many people in the Lords arguing, is we need a better system that shares out this burden in a way that is fair to the countries that get the most refugees.
“Seventy two per cent of refugees end up in the country next to the one they come from, which is almost certainly going to be really poor. Now it’s fine they stay there, if the country can manage it.
“How do we make sure that country has the resources to do that in a way that enables the people to go home, or to build new lives, rather than having to travel at great risk halfway around the world?”
He maintained that he only intervened in politics after “long thought and advice…and seeing what the Bible teaches us about the situation”.
“I could never imagine myself in secular politics. I wouldn’t know which party to belong to, if any,” he added.
‘Voices of fear’
He accepted he would face criticism but he agreed his sense of duty quietened “voices of fear”.
“There is real fear. It is very unpleasant if you say something critical, and all the papers land on you… One of my rules is don’t grumble about this job. It is such a privilege to do it,” he said.
His comments come as the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has toughened up the requirements for migrants seeking to block deportation flights to Rwanda.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the ECtHR set out a new codified version of Rule 39 orders, which were used by Strasbourg judges to block the first deportation flight to Rwanda in June 2022.
The new version states that judges can only issue the injunctions where there would be an “imminent risk of irreparable harm” if a migrant was deported to Rwanda, mirroring the conditions of the Government’s proposed legislation.
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