Pope Francis denounced, this Sunday (5), the “wreck of civilization” that abandons migrants on their arrival at a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, where he was warmly received by numerous families.
On the second day of the pontiff’s trip to Greece, Francis visited the Mavrovouni camp, which houses some 2,200 asylum seekers in difficult conditions.
Mavrovouni is a structure hastily built on a former army firing range after the fire in Camp Moria in September 2020 — an unhealthy camp that was the largest in Europe.
There, during an emotional speech, Francisco made an appeal to face the “wreck of civilization”, five years after his first visit to this Greek island amidst the migratory crisis. On the 2016 trip, he said “We are all migrants” when visiting Moria camp. This time, he lamented that “little has changed since then”.
The Mediterranean “is becoming a cold cemetery with no headstones […] I beg you, let’s stop this sinking of civilization!”, he declared, over the sea where several migrants die trying to reach Europe in precarious boats.
The Argentine pontiff greeted and blessed the families present, including many children. “Welcome!”, “we love you,” they told him.
About 40 asylum seekers, mostly Catholics from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), attended the Sunday Angelus and were present at the Pope’s speech under a tent, in the presence of various religious leaders, by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, European Vice President, Margaritis Schinas, and Greek Minister of Migration, Notis Mitarachi.
Some refugees now hope to return with him to Rome, as happened in 2016. That year, he returned with 12 Syrian refugees. This time, 50 migrants will be transferred from Cyprus, where he was on Thursday and Friday.
Indeed, in Athens, the possibility that some of Mavrovouni’s asylum seekers might accompany the pope from Lesbos to Italy has not been ruled out.
Three such camps have already been opened on the islands of Samos, Leros and Cos, and others on Lesbos and Chios are planned for next year. The fields are surrounded by barbed wire and closed off with X-ray gates.
The main theme of his pontificate, the cause of refugees remains the cornerstone of the Pope’s 35th trip, which began on Thursday (2) in Cyprus and is expected to last five days.
The Argentine pontiff “is convinced that the issue of migrants is the biggest humanitarian catastrophe after World War II,” according to Italian writer Marco Politi, an expert on Vatican news.
Jorge Bergoglio, who comes from a family of Italian migrants living in Argentina, has constantly defended the reception of thousands of “brothers and sisters”, regardless of their religion or refugee status.
In Athens on Saturday, he criticized in front of Greek leaders “the European community, torn apart by nationalist selfishness”, which “at times seems blocked and uncoordinated, rather than being a motor of solidarity”.
In Cyprus, on Friday (3), Francisco drew a parallel between refugee camps and World War II and asked to “open your eyes” to the “slavery” and “torture” suffered by migrants in these refuges.
It reminds us of the story of the last century, of the Nazis, of Stalin, and we wonder how this could have happened. But what happened in the past is happening today on the neighboring coasts,” he said.
The issue is particularly current given recent tensions between the European Union and Belarus over the use of migrants as hostages and the serious tragedy that occurred in the English Channel, with 27 people killed as they tried to cross from France to the UK by boat. It was the worst tragedy in the area since 2014.
On Tuesday (30), 36 NGOs helping migrants, including Médecins du Monde and the Greek League for the Defense of Human Rights, requested a meeting with the pope to inform him about refugees in Greece, denouncing living conditions in the camps and the slowness of asylum procedures.
The Greek authorities, in turn, said they expected “recognition of the weight that the reception of so many migrants represents for Greece” and that they wanted “that the visit should not be reduced only to the migratory dimension”.
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