The bishop of Dover unpacked the importance of migration and the root causes behind it in a passionate speech on BBC Question Time last night.
Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin was responding to a query about how to reduce immigration when she emphasised the moral aspect behind the issue.
She said: “This is another area that needs to be stopped being kicked around like a political football. It’s not working.”
She said that many people differentiate between legal and illegal migration prominent when there “ought not to be” any difference.
“We are talking about people who are most vulnerable,” the reverend said. “And those who come legally, I know hear us talking about, ‘they can’t bring their family’.
“What are we talking about? They’re to stay without their families? So something needs to be done,” she said.
The reverend added that the more important question is: “Why are people leaving their countries?”
She continued: “Is it war? Is it to do with famine? Is it climate change? Whatever the situation is, how can we as an international group resolve this problem?
“If we don’t address that at its root, people are going to keep moving.”
She claimed that even the British colonists were economic migrants once, as well.
As Reform UK’s Nigel Farage tried to question her, the bishop fought back and said: “It is going to continue to affect us unless we address it at its root.
“We cannot just throw people away. They are human beings. They are our brothers and sisters.”
The Conservative government has caused alarm over the last few years with its plan to deport illegal asylum seekers to Rwanda.
This is a bid to reduce the number of small boats coming across the Channel, but it has faced a series of legal challenges and no migrants have yet been forcibly deported.