The archbishop of Canterbury is to take in Syrian refugees at his official London residence, saying “Jesus was a refugee”.

Justin Welby is to house “a family or two” in a four-bedroom cottage in the grounds of Lambeth Palace on the south bank of the Thames, a spokeswoman confirmed on Sunday.

His gesture follows a similar move by the Catholic church. Pope Francis said two refugee families would move into Vatican housing, but Lambeth Palace said it was something the archbishop has been considering for a while.



A spokeswoman said the cottage in the palace grounds was currently being redecorated and could provide room for a “family or two”. She said: “As a Christian who leads the Church of England it is something he feels absolutely passionate about.

“As the archbishop has said, Jesus was a refugee, and there are refugees here who are desperate for sanctuary from war-torn places and the archbishop is completely torn about their situation and wants to make a difference.”

The rent for the refugees would be paid for by charitable funds under the archbishop’s personal control, she said.

Britain’s response to the refugee crisis facing Europe is to take 20,000 refugees from camps on the borders of Syria over the next five years.

Welby has been critical of the government’s response, saying it is very slim in the context of figures given by the UN high commissioner for refugees and the European commission.

He is also reported to have met the prime minister earlier this month amid growing concerns that Christians in Syria will be largely excluded from the refugees due to come to the UK.

Addressing the House of Lords, he said that “within the camps there is significant intimidation and radicalisation, and many particularly of the Christian population who have been forced to flee are unable to be in the camps”.

A Vatican parish has already taken in a Christian family of four refugees from Syria following the pope’s pledge earlier this month. The St Anna parish – Sant’Anna dei Palafrenieri in Italian – accepted one of two families it promised to take in: a father, mother and two children who fled their home in Damascus. They are said to be Christian of the Catholic Greek Melkite rite.

The Vatican said the family would be staying at an apartment near St Peter’s in the Vatican and that they had immediately followed procedures to apply for asylum in Italy.

The continent’s biggest migratory flow since 1945 has opened a deep rift between western and eastern members of the EU over how to distribute the refugees fairly, and raised questions over the fate of the Schengen agreement allowing borderless travel within the 28-nation bloc.

Several countries have imposed border controls, as recent figures have shown nearly half a million people have braved perilous trips across the Mediterranean to reach Europe so far this year, while the EU has received almost a quarter of a million asylum requests in the three months to June.