CHRISTMAS has been cancelled at Bethlehem. Normally a place for pilgrims, stooping to enter the Church of The Nativity, built on the site of Jesus' birth, Bethlehem is too dangerous a place to be. It has become a no-go area and many of its citizens are confined to their homes. Shells are falling. People are being dispossessed. Blood runs down the streets. More refugees pour into the world.

It was not a comfortable place to be 2,000 years ago. Imagine the headlines of the Bethlehem Chronicle. Town to be avoided. Huge traffic jams. Beware strangers. Keep foreigners out. They're taking our jobs. Make them pay tax. And then on page three - Unmarried mother fears eviction. Government action puts thousands onto the road.

Thus was Jesus turned into an asylum seeker. You can understand the attitude of the people of Bethlehem. Normal life had been disrupted by an influx of people directed there because of a political edict that that was where they had to register for a census. People behave badly away from home so there were undesirable incidents. It was safer to ignore the knock on the door and to keep up the respectability of the hotels. The last thing a landlord wanted was the messy disturbance of the birth of a baby - especially if there was a sniff of scandal about it. Worse was to come. For some reason, this new born child incurred the attention of the government police and now it seemed all baby boys were in danger. The best thing to do was to see off these families and close the town gates.

Not for the first time frightened people were on the move, seeking somewhere safe. And it was certainly not the last time. In the sophisticated world of the 20th Century, which might have learned to be more civilised than the barbarism of the 1st Century, there were more refugees than ever before. Most of them were on the run from political and military oppression. They were literally running for their lives.

The 21st Century opens with a massive human migration. It causes unbelievable suffering and a severe test for humanity. Even more alarming, the problem is not just somewhere else. If it were Africa, Russia or the Middle East, you might expect people to behave like that but you could ignore it and get on with life, relatively untroubled. The truth is - they are here. Not just in the Balkans. Not even just in London and Dover. They are here in the North-East. And it is a test of our humanity how we deal with them. Christmas might have been cancelled in Bethlehem but the real Christmas is here with all its tortuous questions about human rights.

Human rights are not a left wing invention to keep us politically correct. There are basic things we need to be free to be human - a safe society and a safe home. We have a right to have access to our families. We have legal rights not to be called guilty before it is proved and to expect that our savings and belongings will not be taken away. We have a passport which gives us rights of citizenship. We have rights not to be discriminated against because of the colour of our skin or because of what we believe. Life would be intolerable if these rights were not in place.

Yet that is precisely what has been taken away from those who seek asylum and are now amongst us in increasing numbers in the North-East. The cry has gone up that the asylum seekers are criminals, that they will keep more people out of work, that they will cash in on the health service, which is already creaking and for which we have paid. It is alleged that they are changing our culture and threaten our rights. If all that were true, it would be right to pull up the drawbridges on the United Kingdom and clam into jail anyone who slipped through the net.

But the evidence from people in the North-East is that the vast majority of asylum seekers are law-abiding people who are fleeing violent political oppression. Often their lives are in danger. Many are honest professional intelligent people who have witnessed the most appalling crimes carried out in the name of civil authority.

So how are we treating them? The answer has to be mixed. Helen Ogilvie of the refugee service tells of a family who were settling in to the area and the children had started school. Helen visited one day and a seven-year-old boy answered the door. When asked why he was not at school he replied: "A man tried to kill us". The family had been targeted and harassed by three men who had tried to break in and were threatening the family. The mother told how they had come to this country to be safe because men had tried to break into their home and kill them but the same was happening to them here.

Another young man arrived eighteen months ago from Congo and was immediately hospitalised because of his wounds. He was visited and befriended by Caroline Dick, working on behalf of the churches amongst the asylum seekers. When he was a little better, he went to London to be interviewed at his original point of entry and denied the right to stay. He was taken into detention immediately, put in prison for four months and denied access to his belongings, including Caroline's address.

A group in London, which assists asylum seekers, then bailed him. He returned to the North-East where he reports weekly to the probation service - still treated like an offender. But at least his case is going to be reviewed in February.

The Churches of the North-East are deeply involved in providing safety, friendship, clothing and language learning to hundreds of asylum seekers. And so they should be. Because Bethlehem means a lot to Christians. If Bethlehem is closed for Christmas, Christians are making Bethlehem happen here. Amidst all the threats and violence, there comes to the Bethlehem of the North-East, in the presence of His followers, the One who is called the Prince of Peace, the bringer of safety.

That is why we can sing with celebration:

O little town of Bethlehem

Yet in thy dark streets shineth

The everlasting light

The hopes and fears of all the years

Are met in thee tonight.

And we can pray in the name of Jesus, the asylum seeker:

O Holy Child of Bethlehem

Descend to us we pray

Cast out our sin, and enter in

Be born in us today.