One of Scotland’s leading churchmen last night appealed to Scottish MPs to vote against new laws on asylum and immigration to show Scotland welcomed and protected "victims of injustice" from overseas.
In an open letter, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said the Asylum and Immigration Bill "falls short" of international conventions on human rights.
O’Brien said the vote in the House of Commons tomorrow would be a test of whether Scotland was a welcoming country or not.
He spoke out as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, renewed his attack on the government’s plans.
The churches are concerned over plans to create a single tier of appeal for asylum seekers whose cases are rejected by immigration officers.
The Bill would deny the right to a judicial review, removing "a vital check on initial decisions that are notoriously poor" according to the Catholic Church in Scotland.
It also expressed concerns over provisions to take children of asylum seekers into care and making it a criminal offence for refugees to arrive in the UK without a passport or an ‘acceptable’ reason why they did not have one.
O’Brien said in the letter: "As statistics show, asylum seekers who come to this country are normally victims of injustice in their own country and they should be protected in our midst while their claims are examined.
"They should be protected to the standards outlined in United Nations Refugee Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.
"The new Bill, regrettably, in some areas falls short of these standards. The vote on the Asylum and Immigration Bill is an opportunity to demonstrate whether Scotland is a welcoming country or not."
‘Asylum seekers who come here are normally victims of injustice’
O’Brien’s predecessor, Cardinal Thomas Winning, questioned whether Scotland was "making strangers welcome" a few weeks before he died in 2001.
O’Brien said: "He was concerned about politicians ‘being tempted to outdo each other in recommending ever more Draconian methods to deal with some of the most hurt and vulnerable people in our country’.
"I fear that the latest proposals for asylum seekers, including taking children into care, demonstrate that Cardinal Winning’s worry about politicians was well placed."
He told the MPs: "These views are shared by many Christians. I ask you as one of Scotland’s MPs to consider whether your vote on the Asylum and Immigration Bill tomorrow will demonstrate that the stranger is welcome in our midst."
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has also hit out at proposals to revamp Scotland’s system of sex education and welfare.
It condemned the "gravely irresponsible" plans, saying they diminished the role of parents and accused ministers of operating in a "moral vacuum".
It also claimed that plans to allow children greater access to contraceptives will simply increase the numbers of teenagers having sex.
The criticisms have come as part of the Catholic Church’s response to the Executive’s draft sexual health strategy which was published last November.
Ministers hope that better sex education will help to bring down Scotland’s high rate of teenage pregnancy and the numbers of young Scots who suffer from sexually transmitted infections.
Proposals from the Executive include siting sexual health clinics in schools, introducing sex education for children under five years old, and giving teenagers special cards to allow them to get free condoms.