Two European church groups have expressed deep concern about the "thousands of migrants unjustly detained in Europe for not having the right documents".

In a joint statement on October 13 2008, the Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME) and the central committee of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) called on churches across Europe to "pray for detained migrants as for well as for the prison chaplains and support their work".

The groups declared their "solidarity and sympathy with the prison chaplains who face these situations of detainees daily with hardly any possibility to change conditions and offer perspectives".

The statement said that an assembly of the CCME had voted a resolution, endorsed by the CEC central committee, in support of demands by Austrian non-governmental organisations on the occasion of Austria's national Right of Residence Day on October 10.

The groups said that legal provisions for regularisation in Austria should be based on human rights legislation, that those who have been in Austria for five years should be allowed to stay, and called for a change in migration policy.

"The stringent and tortuous legal migration provisions of 2005 must be abolished. We ask for human and reasonable policies, which respect the rule of law and human rights, and promote integration instead of preventing it," the churches' statement said.

In support of its call for legal provisions for regularisation in Austria to be based on human rights legislation, the churches' resolution said that the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees respect of private and family life.

"Currently decisions on a person's right to remain on humanitarian grounds can only be taken by the Austrian minister of the interior. This 'clemency' has no place in a society based on legal rights. In June 2008 the Austrian Constitutional High Court asked for a rights based procedure. We demand a fair and human rights based regularisation procedure, to which all have the right to apply".

Arguing for those who have been in Austria for five years to be allowed to stay, the resolution said that "unjust asylum decisions" by the ministry of interior led to lengthy asylum procedures.

"Applicants have to wait for years - with the result that hundreds of them begin to put down roots, despite their future remaining insecure. Those who have been in Austria for more than five years should have the right to stay on legally."

The resolution said that for too long, legal provisions for asylum and the right to residence in Austria had been dominated by election interests.

"Political parties too often prefer simple slogans to solutions based on the facts. This leads to suffering for people who have come to Austria. The deficits of Austrian immigration laws have been criticised several times by the Austrian High Courts The stringent and tortuous legal migration provisions of 2005 must be abolished.

"We ask for human and reasonable policies, which respect the rule of law and human rights, and promote integration instead of preventing it," the resolution said.

CCME is an ecumenical agency on migration and integration, asylum and refugees, and anti-racism and anti-discrimination in Europe. It works in co-operation with the CEC and the World Council of Churches. The CEC is a fellowship of about 120 Orthodox Christian, Protestant, Anglican and Old Catholic Churches from all countries of Europe, plus 40 associated organisations.