Iranian asylum seekers are finding hospitality in the Church of England
Saman’s parents disowned him. The church became a new sort of family.
Saman made his way to England from northwestern Iran in 2018. His home had just been raided and a friend arrested after the two of them took part in a street protest against rising prices in the country. Leaving behind a wife, Saman walked across the border into Turkey. He stayed in a windowless room for a month, then traveled by truck for five or six days, after which he was put in another truck and driven for another two or three days. Then he was told, “You’re in England.” He was advised to introduce himself to a police officer and ask for asylum.
Immigration officials in the United Kingdom sent him to the city of Sunderland in the northeast of the country, and there he found a church doing ministry with refugees. Before long, he was a Christian.
“I asked myself, ‘Why are these British people like this? Why are they serving us?’” he told me in an interview. An Iranian friend named Hamid had already converted to Christianity, and Saman had noticed the difference it made for him.
