Tag: Refugees

‘You come here and take our jobs,’ Lebanese tell refugees

November 19, 2015 Lebanon Beirut, Lebanon, Refugees, Syria, Turkey, UN

World Watch Monitor has an occasional diary from a church leader still in Aleppo, the Syrian city that is now a key battleground between rebels and President Assad’s forces. Recently, however, pastor Samuel* visited Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon to meet some of that country’s one million Syrian refugees. This is his edited . . . Read More

Eritrean priest nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

October 6, 2015 Eritrea Eritrea, Ethiopia, Migrants, Mussie Zerai, Refugees

An Eritrean priest who has helped to save the lives of hundreds of refugees has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Pope Francis and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Father Mussie Zerai, who lives in Switzerland, has received hundreds of emergency phone calls from refugees. (His number is written . . . Read More

Call to the European Church to stand with refugees

September 23, 2015 Europe, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Migrants, Muammar Gaddafi, Qatar, Refugees, Saudi Arabia, Syria

As Europe struggles to manage the migrant crisis, some church leaders in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq are saying that some refugees are ‘fed up with Islam’ because Gulf countries aren’t offering them help. These leaders’ message to the European Church is ‘be prepared’ to welcome the many Muslims who are . . . Read More

Iraq’s ISIS survivors adjust to life in a refugee camp

September 17, 2015 Iraq Erbil, Islamic State, Mosul, Refugees, UN

As the world attempts to come to terms with the thousands of refugees escaping the horrors of war in Syria and Iraq, World Watch Monitor hears what life is like for the hundreds of families from northern Iraq who fled overnight from an invading ISIS force to settle in a makeshift camp, which has now . . . Read More

Cambodia orders Montagnards to leave

September 15, 2015 Vietnam Asylum seekers, Cambodia, Montagnards, Protestants, Refugees, UN, Vietnam

Cambodia has told hundreds of Vietnamese Christian refugees to return home or face forced repatriation. The UN estimated in August that over 200 Degars (or Montagnards), who observe a form of Protestantism outlawed in Vietnam, were waiting for their asylum claims to be processed. Cambodia granted 13 of them refugee . . . Read More

Hundreds of refugees convert in Germany

September 10, 2015 Afghanistan, Asylum seekers, Berlin, Converts, Europe, Germany, Iran, Norway, Refugees, Syria

Hundreds of asylum seekers – mainly from Iran and Afghanistan – have converted to Christianity at an evangelical church in Berlin, causing an Associated Press journalist to question the legitimacy of their conversions. The pastor of the church, Gottfried Martens, who has witnessed his Trinity Church grow from 150 to 600 . . . Read More

Billionaire proposes ‘refugee island’

September 9, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Egypt, Greece, Italy, Refugees, Syria

A tweet from Egypt’s third richest man went viral last week when the Coptic billionaire offered to purchase a large island from Greece or Italy to host “hundreds and thousands of refugees” fleeing the conflict in Syria. Telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris, the chief executive of Orascom TMT, told both Agence . . . Read More

Calais church shows migrants’ ‘gigantic’ faith

August 18, 2015 Calais, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Migrants, Refugees, Sudan, Syria

A “contentious” church built in the midst of a makeshift refugee camp in northern France was featured on the BBC’s flagship Christian worship programme, Songs of Praise, on Sunday (16 August). The episode, available in the UK for 30 days on the BBC’s iPlayer, focuses on the “faith aspect” of . . . Read More

A migrant’s story

August 17, 2015 Eritrea Eritrea, Migrants, Pentecostals, Refugees

So far this year, more than 200,000 migrants have landed on European shores. Almost two-thirds of them have come from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea – countries where pressure on Christians is intense. As European politicians squabble over how to respond to the world’s greatest refugee crisis since the Second World . . . Read More

More Christians ‘abducted’ in Syria

August 7, 2015 Syria Aleppo, Homs, Kidnapping, Qaryatain, Refugees, Sunni, Syria

Islamic State has taken over a Syrian town southeast of Homs, its first major success since capturing Palmyra, a World Heritage site, in May 2015, about 100km to the northeast. At least 230 people are reported to have been abducted from Al-Quaryatayn, a town of 40,000 mainly Sunni Muslims and . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye