wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Churches' campaign on resident permits for migrants welcomed

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 03/12/2009

GLOBAL NETWORK WELCOMES CAMPAIGN ON RESIDENT PERMITS FOR MIGRANTS

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Global Ecumenical Network on Migration  (GEM) has welcomed a year-long campaign by European churches aimed at  granting long-term resident permits to foreigners after five years of  legal stay.

The Year of European Churches Responding to Migration 2010 will aim at  improving the situation of migrants in Europe, mainly through joint  advocacy efforts for migrants' and refugees' right to a long-term  residence status after five years of legal stay, irrespective of the  grounds of the stay.

"This is a courageous and very much needed initiative by the churches in  Europe, which could be a model for churches in other regions on the  'receiving end' of migration flows", said Sydia Nduna, WCC programme  executive for Migration and Social Justice, speaking on behalf of the GEM.  "Welcoming the stranger is not optional, but central to Christian  identity", she added.

The year-long campaign was launched at the end of November in Budapest,  Hungary, by the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Churches'  Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME). Another goal of the initiative  is to increase the visibility of the churches' work with and for migrants,  refugees and ethnic minorities.

"Thanks to the presence of the GEM our deliberations gained a sense of  urgency", said Torsten Moritz, from the CCME. "Hearing from the Pacific  about the effects of climate change and displacement of people in their  region and about the humanitarian crisis in Colombia underlined that  migration is becoming more globalized, so needs to be the churches'  response."

Year of European Churches Responding to Migration 2010
http://www.migration2010.eu

>Global Ecumenical Network on Migration
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3414

Additional information: Juan Michel +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363  media@wcc-coe.org

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 560 million  Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman  Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from  the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.