Free Church denominations have called for justice and compassion for asylum seekers, following a statement from Immigration Minister Phil Woolas criticising human rights groups and lawyers for assisting the vulnerable.

Immigration Minister Phil Woolas should be publicly investigating his own government's bias against asylum seekers rather than attacking charities, human rights groups and lawyers for giving vulnerable people support, says the religion and society think tank Ekklesia.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a research body bringing together the world's richest developed countries, has suggested that fears about migration and hostility towards migrant workers are unjustified.

Migration is a fact of life, an instinct to survive and an inevitable consequence of globalization - something we can neither turn our backs on it nor control, declared a statement of participants at a faith-led public hearing in Beirut.