Pope Francis ends trip to Greece and Cyprus focusing on migrant rights

Pope Francis thanked Greece for its “gracious hospitality” when he left on Monday after a historic three-day visit marked by calls for better treatment of migrants in Europe.

Before leaving, the Pope met with young people at a Catholic school on the outskirts of Athens, urging openness.

“When the temptation to withdraw into ourselves comes, let’s look to others,” he said.

He also held brief talks on Monday with the speaker of parliament, Konstantinos Tassoulas, and with the leader of the main opposition party, Alexis Tsipras, who thanked him “for his unwavering defense of human rights and social justice.”

During his whirlwind visit, Francis met with the head of the Greek Orthodox Church and visited the Mavrovouni tent camp on Lesbos, where he called the abandonment of migrants the “shipwreck of civilization.”

After his visit to the migratory focus, he celebrated a mass for some 2,000 faithful in Athens, where he urged respect for the “little and humble.”

In 2016, Francis visited the sprawling Moria camp on Lesbos, when the island was the main gateway for migrants heading to Europe.

He was warmly received by a crowd of migrants in the camp, which is home to nearly 2,200 asylum seekers.

The people then gathered in a tent to sing songs and psalms to the pontiff, who listened to them visibly moved.

“I’m trying to help them,” Francis told a group through his interpreter.

The Mavrovouni camp was hastily erected after Moria, then the largest such site in Europe, caught fire last year.

‘Grim graveyard without headstones’

In his speech, Francisco warned that the Mediterranean “is turning into a gloomy cemetery without tombstones” and that “after all this time, we see that little has changed in the world regarding the issue of migration.”

The root causes “must be confronted, not the poor who pay the consequences and are even used for political propaganda,” he added.

According to the International Organization for Migration, this year 1,559 people have died or disappeared while trying to cross the dangerous Mediterranean.

Some 40 asylum seekers, mostly from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, participated in an Angelus prayer in a tent with the Pope on Sunday.

“Your visit is a blessing,” said Rosette Leo, a Congolese asylum seeker carrying a two-month-old baby while waiting in line for the ceremony.

However, Menal Albilal, a Syrian mother with a two-month-old baby whose asylum application was rejected after two years on the island, said the refugees “want more than words, we need help.”

“Conditions here are not good for a baby,” he told AFP.

The pope has long championed the cause of migrants, and his visit came after he issued a harsh rebuke to Europe that he said was “torn by nationalist selfishness.”

Before arriving in Greece, the Pope visited Cyprus, where authorities said 50 migrants will be relocated to Italy thanks to Francis.

The 84-year-old pope is himself from a family of Italian immigrants who settled in Argentina.

(AFP)