Tears flow as Pope visits migrant camp – Pontiff brings 12 Syrian refugees to Italy in lesson for Europe

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Pope Francis hugs a child at the Moria detention center in Mytilene on April 16.
Pope Francis hugs a child at the Moria detention center in Mytilene on April 16.

LESBOS, Greece April 16, (Agencies): Migrants wept at his feet, kissed his hand and begged for Pope Francis’s help on Saturday at a Greek refugee camp on the frontline of Europe’s migrant crisis which has claimed hundreds of lives in the past year.

At a sprawling fenced complex on the Aegean island of Lesbos, adults and children broke down in tears, pleading for help after their onward journey to Europe was cut short by an EU decision to seal off a migrant route used by a million people fleeing confl ict since early 2015.

Francis, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, shook hands with hundreds of people as hundreds more were penned behind metal barriers at the Moria camp, which holds some 3,000 people. “Freedom, freedom,” migrants chanted as the pope walked through the hillside facility in scorching sun. Some women ululated.

Earlier, Greek state TV reported Francis was planning to take ten refugees back with him to the Vatican, eight of them Syrians. Their names were taken from a lot this week. “This is a gift from God,” state broadcaster ERT quoted a woman called Nour as saying. A Vatican spokesman said he had no immediate comment on the TV report, suggesting reporters “should follow the day’s events as they unfold.” “I want to tell you, you are not alone,” Francis said in a scripted speech. “… As people of faith, we wish to join our voices to speak out on your behalf. Do not lose hope!” he said, flanked by Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, and Greek Archbishop Ieronymos.

Occasions
On at least three occasions, adults fell to the feet of the pontiff, weeping and begging for help. One woman wearing a crucifix broke through a police cordon and flung herself at Francis’s feet. “No camp, no camp,” the woman, who appeared to be in her early thirties, sobbed. “I want to go.” In a tent where Francis met with migrants, a little girl with pigtails dressed in pink and white bowed at his feet. An adult man broke down. Migrants slipped pieces of paper into his hand as Francis passed by, which he handed to an aide.

The pope has often defended refugees and urged Catholic parishes in Europe to host them. His first trip after becoming pontiff in 2013 was to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, which, like Lesbos, has received thousands of refugees. Hundreds of people have died making the short but precarious crossing from Turkey to the Lesbos shores in inflatable dinghies in the past year, and the island is full of unmarked graves.

“This is a trip that is a bit different than the others … this is a trip marked by sadness,” Francis told reporters on the plane taking him to Lesbos. “We are going to encounter the greatest humanitarian catastrophe since World War Two. We will see many people who are suffering, who don’t know where to go, who had to flee. We are also going to a cemetery, the sea. So many people died there … this is what is in my heart as I make this trip.”

Aid organisations have described conditions at Moria, a disused army camp, as appalling. “This is like Guantanamo. We just want to leave,” said Ahmed, a 29 year old from Mosul in Iraq. Journalists normally have no access to the facility on a hillside just outside Lesbos’s main town of Mytiline, but aid workers said walls were whitewashed, a sewer system fixed and several dozen migrants at the overcrowded facility were transferred to another camp, which the pope will not visit.

Lesson
Pope Francis gave Europe a concrete lesson Saturday in how to treat refugees by bringing 12 Syrian Muslims to Italy aboard his charter plane after an emotional visit to the hard-hit Greek island of Lesbos.

The Vatican said the three families, including six children, would be supported by the Holy See and cared for by Italy’s Catholic Sant’Egidio Community. Sant’Egidio has worked out a program with the Italian government to grant deserving refugees humanitarian visas to live in Italy while their asylum applications are being processed. The Vatican said Francis wanted to make a “gesture of welcome” at the end of his five-hour visit to Lesbos, where he implored Europe to respond to the migrant crisis on its shores “in a way that is worthy of our common humanity.”

The Greek island just a few miles from the Turkish coast has seen hundreds of thousands of desperate people land on its shores in the last year, fl eeing war and poverty at home. Francis visited Lesbos alongside the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians and the head of the Church of Greece to thank Greece for its welcome and highlight the plight of refugees as the European Union implements a controversial plan to deport them back to Turkey.

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