“If the European Union wants to take seriously the question of human rights, it must begin to combat the deep-seated causes of forced immigration, instead of combating migrants themselves, in their attempts to reach European territory”: this is one of the conclusions reached by the representatives of the churches of southern Europe and of the Middle East, on the occasion of their annual meeting which took place in Brussels at the end of May. On the agenda of the meeting were the issues of immigration and asylum in the Mediterranean. The participants also met various representatives of the European Parliament and of the Spanish presidency, to whom they expressed a general appreciation for the work performed by the Union. Perplexities, on the other hand, were voiced by the growing tendency of the EU to curb the opportunities for legal immigration and to strengthen border controls.
