In view of the European Council of Laeken the European Churches are appealing for a greater commitment of the Union to the common policies relating to asylum and immigration, to ensure that Europe may be “a safe asylum and not a fortress”. In an appeal signed among others by Caritas Europe, by COMECE (Commission of the bishops of the EU), by the Conference of the European Commissions of Justice and Peace, and by the Commission of the Churches for Migrants in Europe, the Churches point out that the protection of refugees and the procedures for regularizing immigrants are “obscured by the fight against irregular immigration”. They therefore ask for the full application of the Convention on Refugees (Geneva 1951) and express the hope that the policies on immigration may be combined with “a greater commitment to cooperation with the immigrants’ countries of origin”.
