Churches challenge policy on asylum in Australia
(The Christian Science Monitor) In a recent sermon, Mark Dunn asked his congregation to recall the prodigal son as they considered the plight of 267 asylum seekers facing deportation.
Australians, he said, should emulate the father in the parable and embrace the refugees, whom the government has vowed to return to two controversial offshore detention facilities after arriving in the country for medical care.
Dunn has offered to house the asylum seekers—who are originally from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, and Bangladesh—should immigration authorities try to deport them. Such a move would risk jail time for harboring unlawful residents.
