Loach directed the ground-breaking 1960s TV play Cathy Come Home

Loach, 63, who is best known for films such as My Name Is Joe, Riff-Raff and Kes, added: "If we realised what there would have to be to make us leave our homes, we may begin to realise there should be solidarity with immigrants."

He said most of those who fled their home countries had been forced to by events beyond their control.

Bread & Roses, the UK's only Palme d'Or entry, follows two Mexican sisters, Rosa and Maya, who mount a guerilla campaign against their employers.

Loach was joined by the film's two stars, Elphida Carrillo and Pilar Padilla and the film's writer, Paul Laverty.

Carillo, who plays Rosa, said she had to emigrate from Mexico with her 10 siblings after the death of her father.

She hopes the film will also help Latin actors get roles other than those as "maids" and "prostitutes".

Criticising goverments

"Glenn Close, Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons played Latinos in House of the Spirits, which I thought was insulting," she said.

"We want to go to the movies and see something about us, about who we are."

Ken Loach - a long-time Labour Party supporter - also used the conference to criticise governments around the world, whom he said were undermining humanitarian achievements such as fair wages and workers' rights.

"We've had right-wing governments and we've had governments that claim to be on the left but actually continue the policies of the right-wing governments," he explained.

"The rights we've fought for for several generations are in danger of being eroded in favour of so-called progress, and the people masterminding the changes are people who got to power on the backs of the workers' movements."