Church calls for new migrant policy

The British and French Governments must review their reception policies to help the thousands of asylum seekers living in makeshift camps at Calais, according to the spokesman for migrants at the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, write Tom Heneghan and Liz Dodd.

Bishop Patrick Lynch made the call as the French branch of the Catholic peace organisation, Pax Christi, complained about the “incoherence” of Europe’s reception policies. In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, Bishop Lynch said he recognised that the causes of mass migration were complex, but urged governments to work together and with faith communities in their home and host countries.

Meanwhile, the Bishop of Troyes, Marc Stenger, president of Pax Christi France, said ever tighter security measures were a feeble response to the crisis.

 In a statement co-signed by two Pax Christi officials, he asked whether European governments were doing enough to curb the trade in arms and raw materials that fostered unrest in the migrants’ countries.