Baptists in Great Britain joined three other Christian denominations in a new Nativity video imagining the welcome Mary and Joseph would receive as asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.
A Very British Nativity uses child actors to portray harsh realities facing nearly 46,000 asylum seekers in the UK living in temporary housing on the U.S. equivalent of less than $8 a day.
The three-minute video produced by the Joint Public Issues Team — a venture of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Methodist Church, United Reformed Church and Church of Scotland — begins with two child actors dressed in costumes similar to those used in the typical local church Nativity pageant rolling wheeled suitcases through Stratford International railway station in London and being repeatedly turned away while seeking a place to stay.
“Fearing for the safety of their newborn child should they return home, Mary and Joseph decided to apply for asylum,” a narrator describes the scene. “While their asylum claim is being processed, the UK government is providing Mary and Joseph with some temporary accommodations. However, the conditions being leave much to be desired.”
Months later, the couple’s asylum claim is refused. “Let’s try Egypt next, Joseph,” says Mary, portrayed by an 8-year-old actress named Martha who attends a Methodist Church.
While the film employs humor to make its point, the video emphasizes that for asylum seekers in the UK, this Christmas will be no laughing matter.
Asylum seekers entering the UK face a complex system and meager financial support from the government. Temporary housing is assigned on a “no-choice” basis. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work, putting them at risk of poverty and homelessness if their application is denied.
“That’s why churches are reminding the government about a particular Middle Eastern family who sought refuge in a foreign country over 2,000 years ago,” the video says. “It’s time to give the asylum seekers of today the dignity they deserve.”
The United Kingdom takes in about 3 percent of the annual 1.3 million asylum seekers in 28 countries belonging to the European Union. About two thirds of asylum requests are initially refused, but about 45 percent of those are allowed after appeal. Poor countries take in more than 80 percent of the world’s refugees, putting pressure on already limited resources in host countries.
The United States has a quota system limiting the number of refugees. President Obama has called for admission of up to 110,000 refugees during fiscal 2017, more than 50 percent more than the 69,933 resettled in 2015 and a 30 percent increase from the target of 85,000 in 2016.
President-elect Donald Trump has blamed resettled refugees for terrorism and proposed a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
This week Trump vowed to stop the flow of Middle East refugees to America “dead cold flat” and linked a Nov. 28 rampage at Ohio State University by an immigrant from Somali to refugee programs “stupidly created by our very stupid politicians.”