WCC NEWS: Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe: “We can save a million vulnerable humans”

The Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe General Assembly, on 14-16 October, released a message, “Together we can save a million vulnerable humans in Europe again!”   Photo: CCME 19 October 2021 The message challenges discourses and practices of European asylum and migration policy, calling on Europeans and their institutions as well as churches across Europe to protect a million of the most vulnerable refugees and migrants by bringing them to Europe.  The message underlines the positive aspects of the year 2015 and following years in which a million people found protection in Europe. The message also criticizes the current tendency of European countries to keep refugees and migrants out or at the border. The message notes with particular concern not only proposals in the new “asylum and migration pact” of the EU but also ongoing practice at the European external border to bar access to protection. The general assembly also focused on safe passage for refugees and migrants, right to family life in migration and efforts of churches to unite in diversity. Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe moderator Prof. Dr Goos Minderman reflected that there is a huge support for hosting refugees and welcoming migrants at local and regional levels in churches and society across Europe. “Policies have, however, resulted in hundreds of kilometres of fences and walls being built to keep them out,” said Minderman. “We need to reach out to churches and coalitions of the willing to tear down these fences and walls in Europe.”   Read the message "Together we can save a million vulnerable humans in Europe again!" See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC acting general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, from the Orthodox Church in Romania. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland