Call for urgent care to be provided for arriving migrants

The Catholic Church has appealed to the Government to care for the growing number of migrants crossing the Med­iterranean from North Africa and the Middle East to Italy and then trying to travel through France on their way to Britain and northern Europe, writes Tom Heneghan.

Their appeal came after French police began turning back migrants at the Italian-French frontier near Nice, forcing crowds  to camp on the Italian side waiting  to slip across the border.

Other migrants who made it into France were recently rounded up in Paris and Calais.

The bishops praised Catholics already caring for the migrants and invited “all Catholics in France to change their attitude, and dare to meet [them]”. In Nice, Bishop Andre Marceau issued a separate appeal to local Catholics to donate food and clothing to Caritas to help the people at the border.