Thetford: these are the days for an authentic Christian response – by Steve Jefroy

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This week serious disorder broke out in my hometown of Thetford. What began as protests against plans to house asylum seekers at the former RAF site in Barnham has spilled into threats and violence.

Protestors have tried to force their way into houses where they believe refugees are living. Police have been seriously injured defending them including one female Police officer who was bitten by a protestor.

I grew up in Thetford. I now work as a music producer and DJ, working as BCee. I’m a Christian and a member of Hope Church Diss and I lead Hope into Action Diss, advocating for people experiencing homelessness.

That doesn’t make me an expert on immigration, but it explains why this feels personal.

Familiar streets

I recognise the estates, and some of the faces, in the videos going round online. My dad, Ken, was the milkman on Abbey Farm for years – one of the estates where the disorder has happened – and people there still remember “Ken the Milkman”.

I went to school with Scott Hussey, the Reform councillor now speaking to the media. I know some of the angriest men in those clips. My relatives live in those streets, and a crowd outside the window is not a spectacle to them. It is frightening.

Recent history

In 1957 Thetford became an overspill town, taking thousands of families from London. New estates and factory jobs arrived. My dad’s family came that way.

Later, my schoolmates included kids whose parents were stationed at the nearby RAF and also the US air bases at Lakenheath or Mildenhall. Often friends would leave quickly when their dads were posted elsewhere.

People arrived. People left. The town changed. Thetford has never been a place where everyone came from the same place.

Challenges

Thetford also picked up a reputation for low pay and social problems. At college in King’s Lynn I once heard someone say, “Be careful of him — he’s from Thetford.”

Growing up, Thetford seemed to miss out. We didn’t have the events, clubs or cinema other towns had. The feeling that we were forgotten by people in power has deep roots.

At eighteen, a group of local lads stopped me and a friend in town. One accused me of spreading rumours about him; I had never seen him before. We locked ourselves inside MrChips until my dad and the police arrived.

Those lads were born and raised locally. Violence, intimidation, drugs and crime did not arrive in Thetford with asylum seekers. So are we against crime and intimidation, or only against the possibility of foreigners committing it?

We cannot divide the world into good locals and dangerous outsiders.

Honest questions, honest answers

I understand the concerns. Asylum should be neither a free-for-all nor abolished: we need borders, laws and somewhere genuine refugees can find protection.

A large site at Barnham raises real questions about scale, security and support, and local people should be part of answering them. Given how little dialogue or clear information there has been, no wonder rumours spread.

But a large camp and a supported shared house with three or four men in it are not the same thing. Through Hope into Action, I have watched shared homes help people rebuild their lives and give something back.

Fear may explain the violence and threats but it cannot excuse it.

The right to protest

Our democracy lets us vote, organise, petition and protest. I respect Scott for getting stuck into politics and working hard to voice other people’s concerns as well as his own. Whether you agree with him or not, this is how change should be pursued.

Peaceful protest can be noisy but there is no right to smash windows, force entry into homes, throw rocks or terrify residential streets.

The police are people too – our neighbours, trying to stop serious harm. There is a terrible irony in claiming to fear for “our women” while a female officer is bitten hard enough to break the skin.

If what we say we fear is gangs of angry men roaming the streets and frightening families inside their own homes, what do those videos show us becoming?

A Christian response

I’m not telling anyone how to vote, or pretending I have solved immigration. I am making a moral, and Christian, statement. The Bible does not tell Britain how many people to house at Barnham, but it is clear about how God’s people should treat whoever is standing in front of them.

Leviticus 19:33 says do not mistreat the foreigner living among you, but love him as yourself. In Matthew 25, Jesus says he was a stranger and we invited him in: what we do for the least, we do for him. Romans 12 tells us to overcome evil with good.

These are not just suggestions, they are commands.

Propaganda

So if your social media feed is full of propaganda about ‘invasions’ and ‘sending people back’, go back to what the Bible actually says.

At the very least, check something before you share it: is it true, and does the headline match the facts? Sharing misinformation because it confirms what we already feel is not harmless. It spreads fear, hardens hearts and builds the atmosphere we have seen unleashed on Thetford’s streets.

We need meetings where people can ask honest questions. We need representatives who listen. We need accurate information, proper support, and chances for locals and asylum seekers to meet. We can challenge a policy without terrorising a person.

Thetford deserves investment, support and a real voice in decisions about its future. But the men in those houses are not the Home Office. They did not write the rules. They are simply the people standing in front of us.

A better way

So ask the difficult questions. Challenge the government. Oppose the Barnham plans if you think they are wrong. Organise, vote, debate and protest loudly. But this must be done peacefully.

Do not become a mob. Do not turn on people because they are the newest outsiders. Do not become the very thing you say you are protecting the town from.

That isn’t how we were raised. Surely, Thetford, we can be better than this.

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Steve Jefoy is a music producer and DJ working as BCee. He leads Hope into Action Diss and is a member of Hope Church Diss.

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The Bishop of Thetford, Ian Bishop, is holding a prayer service this evening to call for peace and reconciliation. 6.30pm, St Cuthbert’s Church in Thetford Town Centre.