Don't be a stranger

Name
Mavis Henry

Place of residence

Belfast

Country of origin

South Africa

Occupation

Nurse

Mavis Henry, 57, is a nurse from South Africa who moved to the UK in 2002. She was imprisoned by immigration authorities when she first arrived in Northern Ireland because it took too long for her working visa to arrive. She was eventually released after the Human Rights Commission intervened and she stayed with Christians for a few months while she got on her feet. One of the families who took her in was that of Richard Kerr, 43, a Presbyterian minister and founder member of Embrace, a cross-denominational group of Christians who promote a positive response to people seeking asylum, refugees, migrant workers and minority ethnic people.

Mavis says: "Prison was a traumatic experience. They just left me there and no action happened. They forgot about me. When they found out I was a Christian, the chaplain came to see me weekly, which was really good. 

When I left South Africa, I was already a member of the Mothers' Union so when I was in prison the chaplains found this out and contacted the president of the Mothers Union in Northern Ireland, and they visited me and sorted me some money and belongings.

Eventually, the Human Rights Commission came and I got a fax that gave me release because they realised I didn't deserve to be there.

When you get into problems, you get a label and people looked at me as that label instead of an individual. I was labelled as an illegal immigrant and as such they didn't want to know. However, Christians look at the person themselves and want to help them as an individual.

They fight for our human rights as a person and embrace you as a person. How many people have strangers in their homes when they don’t know anything about them? They took that risk when they took me in - they didn't know me - that is being a Christian.”

Richard says: "I worked in Malawi for 11 years and then came back to Belfast in 2000 and then realised that there were a lot of immigrants in Northern Ireland. In contrast to my experience of welcome in Malawi, I realised that many immigrants were not treated well here and sometimes with downright hostility.

After a year, I had been exploring the issues and I heard of a group of Christians talking about what could be done. Embrace was formed. Initially it was set up to support refugees and asylum seekers.

Our strap line is 'building a welcoming community'. Now, the work has evolved and it is not quite so direct. Our aim is to inform and resource Churches and provide education.

People's views on refugees and asylum seekers are often more informed by the Daily Mail than the Bible.

We try and get Christians to think about their responsibility to the people coming in to our communities. It is about being welcoming, but not with our eyes closed. We are aware of people who abuse the systems and we try to communicate with immigration officials so that we are fair."