In a joint statement, the World Council of Churches, Conference of European Churches and the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe thanked governments and agencies assisting foreign migrant workers fleeing Libya to Egypt and Tunisia.

However, they called upon the international community to “broaden their response by willingly sharing the responsibility to provide aid and protection to refugees, migrant workers and other people at risk”.

The church bodies urged protection and assistance for thousands of people still unable to return to their homes and countries, and said that the borders of Libya’s neighbours in North Africa and Europe should be kept open for people fleeing from areas of conflict.

The international community must “enhance efforts to find peaceful and just solutions to the crisis in Libya”, they continued.

Member states of the European Union were called upon to “respond positively” to the initiative of the European Commissioner for Migration and Security to resettle refugees and displaced persons from the region and to relocate asylum applicants from Malta, Italy and Greece to other EU states.

They said there was a need for increased international support to the UN Refugee Agency, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies assisting people with safety, shelter and food.

They urged governments to work through the UN towards a negotiated settlement of the conflict and to seek post-conflict solutions that “serve the legitimate interests of all the people of Libya”.

The UN announced on Tuesday that it was to increase its Libya appeal from $160m to more than $310 to assist more than 1.5 million people affected by the conflict, including 400,000 refugees.

UNHCR is already providing assistance to some of the 160,000 people who have fled across the border to Egypt since the crisis began in mid-February.

The International Organisation for Migration is also appealing for $160 million to continue providing aid and evacuation assistance to people fleeing Libya, many of them migrant workers.

The IOM said the $44 million pledged or received after its previous two appeals was “far short” of what was required to continuing evacuating migrants and providing aid such as food and medical attention at the border areas.

It said that delays to aid were causing some migrants to turn to human smugglers to take them to Europe.

IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said: “More than ever, we appeal to donors to maintain stamina.”