A former Church of England parish priest has claimed "six or seven" asylum seekers at a time would regularly turn up at his Church looking for conversion to Christianity.
Reverend Matthew Firth, who served as a Church of England priest in Darlington, said he became suspicious of the motives of asylum seekers when a fixer would arrive at his church every few weeks, with different groups looking to convert.
The priest, turned whistle-blower, was giving evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Committee, which is examining claims the asylum system is being gamed by some asylum seekers looking to strengthen their applications.
The issue has risen to prominence in recent weeks after the revelation the attacker who threw chemicals over a mother and child in south London, had also converted to Christianity.
Reverend Matthew Firth spoke at the Home Affairs Committee today
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After his conversion, Abdul Ezedi was able to successfully appeal a Home Office decision to deny him asylum.
Reverend Matthew Firth was a priest at St Cuthbert's church in Darlington between 2018 and 2020.
He told Committee members that soon after he arrived at St Cuthbert's he noticed a "surprising number" of baptisms of asylum seekers.
The witness said: "It was a large number of young male asylum seekers, almost in a cohort. After those baptisms, week-in, week-out, significant groups of mainly Iranian and Syrian young male asylum seekers were being brought to me in sizeable cohorts. At a time, six or seven people brought to me by people saying these people need baptism.
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Abdul Ezedi had converted to Christianity and was able to successfully appeal a Home Office decision to deny him asylum
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The former parish priest, who is now a vicar for the Free Church of England, said that as his suspicions grew, he took action to halt the number of asylum seeker baptisms.
He added: "You try to press a pause button, which is to make sure that people are requested to come to church, start getting involved and attending church regularly. That was the thing that kind of made the numbers fall off a cliff in a sense, because those people melted away really."
Concerns over whether some asylum seekers might be trying to game the system were heightened recently, when it emerged as many as 40 asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge in Portland may be currently attempting to convert to Christianity.
The Home Affairs Committee also heard evidence from other leading figures in the Christian faith in the UK, including the Bishop of Chelmsford.
Right Reverend Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani spoke at the hearing
Parliament.tv
Right Reverend Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani pushed back against the claims of a "conveyer belt" of baptism applications from asylum seekers. She said: "The figures don't quite add up to me."
She also highlighted the "increasingly hostile environment for asylum seekers," and said it was not surprising "they may be drawn to the warm welcome the Church offers."
The immigration Minister Tom Pursglove also told the Committee he did not recognise the assertion from the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman that asylum seeker baptisms were happening on "an industrial scale."
He said: "We do not have evidence of systemic abuse of the asylum process."
Tom Pursglove MPGETTYHowever, the Minister was forced to admit that the Home Office had no accurate data on the number of asylum applicants who had converted to Christianity.
He said the Home Office was now "actively working" to improve its data collection methods.
The Minister told MPs that weaknesses with Home Office legacy IT systems meant they were unable to get more accurate itemised data from asylum seeker applications.