It is often said - each generation uncovers one new aspect of the human condition. As we look back through the history of the world we can identify eras of self recognition, nationalism, armed conflict as an attempt to solve human failure to marshal world resources - and so on. I have little doubt that high on the list of identities for this generation will be 'movement of people'. We have seen mass exodus in time of conflict, famine and oppression. We have seen the tragic phenomena of refugees and homeless. Today we focus on what is fast becoming a vital and searching challenge not just for politicians and governments but for all who seek a moral basis for the addressing of human injustice - asylum seeking.

This book adds a particular dimension to this issue. It bases its case on the actualities of those caught up in the tragedy. It does not claim to be an in-depth analysis of the issue but rather it presents real life voices telling their stories. Here we meet human faces and human dimensions facing people created in the image of God. Statistics are for official reports. Conclusions are constantly being drawn and sides taken in political debate. This book provides all of us who are deeply concerned with the asylum issue with real stories from real people. It challenges the Christian conscience and the Christian Church. It takes us far from the sanctuary, pulpit and comfortable pew and confronts us, searches us and forces us to listen to those voices.

Here are issues of equality, justice and humanity. It asks questions we have not even begun to frame let alone answer. It speaks of why people fled Afghanistan. Algeria, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and other nations. It analyses why they chose the United Kingdom as a place of refuge. It tells of their experiences of bureaucracy and detention. It looks beyond to tell us of integration and community acceptance or rejection. It talks about the Church's response - but above all it must be a vital part of a debate.

We believe that we must never forget that asylum seekers are fellow human beings, with fears, hopes and needs. Many of them are also our Christian brothers and sisters, sometimes fleeing precisely because of religious persecution and we feel a special kind of bond with them. But whatever a person's ethnic origin or faith all are equal1y made in the image of God and have the absolute right to be treated with dignity and respect.

Much of the public discussion about people seeking asylum objectifies them so that people no longer see them as fellow human beings. The public has been encouraged to see people seeking asylum as liars, cheats, a threat to our values, our culture and our security. Many people have become afraid of people seeking asylum, resentful of them, willing to blame them for all manner of social ills and many believe that there are far more people seeking asylum in this country than in fact there are.

To quote from the book:

"To leave one's home, family and familiar surroundings has always been a challenge and it is made significantly harder when expectations are unrealized. People have migrated for centuries but to be forced to flee one's land in haste and in search of safety and then to be confronted with hostility and denial. raise important questions about leaving."

Here in Northern Ireland my personal concerns on this issue were raised some years ago when together with other Church leaders I visited Magilligan Prison in Co Londonderry. I was astonished to find people of different ages and nationalities mixing freely with people accused of a wide range of criminal activities including sex offences. I saw young people, vulnerable young people in daily contact with those accused of vicious crimes. They were those awaiting the processing of their claims for asylum in the United Kingdom. I asked questions as to why there was no separate accommodation for asylum seekers. I was not given any satisfactory answer. On the floor of the House of Lords I pressed the Government for some explanation. I was told. there was no available special facility in Northern Ireland for those awaiting decisions on their claims for asylum status. I recognise the situation has now changed and that it is a relatively small figure with which we are confronted in this part of the world. But my experience taught me something of the tragic human side of this issue in a local context.

This book compels us to think and pray. It asks questions not in any official sense but because ordinary people are talking to us through its pages. They are not going to go away. They are going. to continue to come. In God's name we must listen and we must be informed. This book helps us to do so ...

Asylum Voices by Andrew Bradstock and Arlington Trotman is published by CTBI
(£6.95; 0-85169-287-7).