Refugee and Migration Crisis

The Anglican Communion Office (ACO) supports Anglicans to advocate for reconciliation, peace and action. The ACO brings the distinctive voices of Anglicans to international forums such as the United Nations, COP conferences, and other global arenas, to push forwards the principles of the Kingdom of God for the needs of people and planet.

The scale of the refugee and migration crisis

UNHCR reports more than 120 million people forcibly displaced from their homes due to violent persecution, conflict, human rights violations, and events seriously disturbing public order. Of that number, half are women, and more than 43 million are refugees. Over 63 million are internally displaced persons (IDPs), with 40% of the world’s forcibly displaced people being children.

The UN Refugee Agency has never had to handle conditions as bad as this.

There are crises happening across the world, including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latin America and the Caribbean nations, Gaza, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Ukraine.

Each disrupted life, each person forced to flee, is a life uprooted and a person placed into danger: the average refugee can spend up to two decades in refugee camps. Lives are lost as people move from war zones; trauma is compounded as violence and rape stalks migrants. More than 40% of refugees experience post-traumatic stress disorder, with the figure growing to 90% for their children. Additionally, economies suffer, healthcare is challenged, and education disrupted as people leave. $9.3 billion is the estimated spend by low- and middle-income host countries on educating refugees. Host countries struggle to support the arrivals, and tensions can erupt as thousands more people compete for limited food supplies. As examples, in 2024, the UK spent £4.3 billion hosting refugees, while poorer Lebanon spent $1.5 billion looking after Syrian refugees.

Advocating for change

In responding to the Refugee Crisis, it’s vital that people work together to protect people, aid those seeking asylum, promote stability, and address the root causes of displacement.

Calls to governments

The Anglican Communion advocates in international fora for governments to:

• Invest in peacebuilding and community strengthening before a crisis erupts. Most of the time, the world knows where there are places of tension and where a war might break out before anything happens. Governments need to support churches and faith groups to deal with these tensions now, before the violence begins.
• Strengthen legal pathways for refugees and migrants to resettle, including better legal protection and funding.
• Educate people more of the needs of refugees, and avoid hostile political narratives by remembering the human stories of suffering.
• Invest in slowing down climate change, building resilience to climate change, and community adaptation to reduce the number of people displaced by climate disasters.

Calls to Anglicans

So often, Anglican communities are the ones being forced to flee, or who are on the receiving end of refugee movements. As such, our sisters and brothers in Christ are hugely impacted by these issues. Anglicans can advocate for change. 

• Advocate for better refugee care with your national government.
• Advocate for investment in peacebuilding with your national government e.g. drawing attention to the difference in government spending on defence compared with peacebuilding.
• Write to politicians calling on them to avoid divisive rhetoric about refugees and migrants.
• Work through companion links to understand or share refugee crises where your church could offer insights or support.
• Promote just financing for climate action and ensure you live a sustainable lifestyle, to reduce the severity of climate change.

What are Anglicans doing?

• The Most Reverend Maimbo Mndolwa, Archbishop and Primate of Tanzania, is a member of UNHCR’s Multireligious Council, offering guidance and input into UNHCR’s direction - Learn more
• The Anglican Communion Office's advocacy team, represents Anglicans in UN forums such as 2023’s Global Refugee Forum - Learn more
• Anglicans are represented at quarterly global migration working group to share information, skills, ideas and intelligence regarding how we can help refugees/IDPs/migrants.
• The ACO builds connections with other NGOs working across the world to support refugees, to share best practice and resources.
• The ACO strengthens ecumenical ties between church denominations for the benefit of refugees.

Stories and Case Studies 

Read more about what Anglicans are doing around the world to respond to migration crisis. 

• A Canadian welcome for Afghan refugees - Read full story
• ACC discuss refugee care on agenda; Lambeth Conference bishop globally discussing refugee care - Read full story

Reflect and Pray

Read

Read Genesis 37-50: Joseph, a descendant of Abraham, was sold by his brothers into slavery. Yet God helped him rise to a position of power in Egypt, his adopted home. Meanwhile, famine struck the homeland of Joseph’s brothers, and they had to migrate to Egypt to seek food. They found mercy, a new home – and a lost brother – when they arrived in Egypt.

• Like migrants today, the brothers of Joseph are forced to leave home because of climate circumstances. Think of the justice in today’s world, where industrialised countries produce the pollution, and then shut out those fleeing the famines and droughts.
• The brothers found their lost relative Joseph, and a new future, in Egypt. What are we losing when we shut out migrants?
• How similar is Joseph’s experience (violence, slavery, false accusations, imprisonment) to those of modern-day migrants?

Read Genesis 12:33-42: Migration via the Exodus was a mixed bag: on the one hand, freedom was offered from the violence of Egypt, and escape from the economic collapse of Egyptian society resulting from the plagues. On the other hand, a world of uncertainty awaited them in the deserts of Sinai.

• What does this say about the experience of migration and becoming a refugee? 

Read Ruth 1-4: Ruth, a foreigner, became a migrant out of loyalty to her mother-in-law. Reflect on the legal structures that meant she could work and find food; and the societal arrangements that meant she could be integrated and married. Reflect on her subsequent place in the line of King David.

• What does this say about a well-organised society? How can we build systems that integrate rather than isolate?

Read Matthew 2:13-23: The holy family had their own experience of refugee life, fleeing to Egypt to escape their own king, the wicked Herod. The irony is that, in the book of Exodus, Egypt was the place of oppression; but now, it is the place of safety. Herod has become the new despotic pharaoh.

• What does this say about our self-awareness, and our failures to recognise our own roles and contributions to migration movements?

Discuss:

1. What responsibilities do we have to support refugees? 
2. How can we support refugees while taking into consideration the power and privileged positions we or others hold? 
3. How can people help refugees who are displaced because of their race, religion, nationality, or political views?  

Pray:

Almighty and merciful God,
whose Son became a refugee and had no place to call his own;
look with mercy on those who today are fleeing from danger,
homeless and hungry.
Bless those who work to bring them relief;
inspire generosity and compassion in all our hearts;
and guide the nations of the world towards that day when all will rejoice in your Kingdom of justice and of peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

(Source: The Church of England)