refugees
Pope calls on the EU to better distribute migrants
Pope Francis speaks to young people during his visit to the St. Dionysius School of the Ursuline Sisters. Photo: Thanassis Stavrakis / AP / dpa
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On Lesbos, Pope Francis visited a reception center for migrants – and has a clear message for the countries of Europe.
Pope Francis has called on the EU to better distribute migrants in Europe. Every country has the capacity to host the people, said the head of the Catholic Church on Monday on the return flight from his trip to Cyprus and Greece.
“The governments know how many they can take in. The migrants must be taken in, accompanied, supported and integrated, ”emphasized the pontiff. “And if a government can’t do that, it has to talk to others so they can take care of it.”
Francis had met with migrants in Cyprus and Greece and visited a reception center on Lesbos. Even there, he criticized the fact that the Greeks, for example, were left alone with the problem.
When asked about the crisis in Belarus, the Pope again criticized the repulsion of refugees by many states. “Nowadays it is fashionable to put up walls and barbed wire,” said the 84-year-old. He urged a reflection on one’s own history. “Those who build walls lose the sense of their own story.”
It is also bad that migrants are often intercepted on their flight – for example from Libya – and sent back without being taken care of. «If I send someone back, then I have to accompany them and integrate them into their country. I cannot leave him on the Libyan coast. It is cruelty. “