Pope Francis on Wednesday called attempts to “repel” migrants a “grave sin” and called for “solidarity” in a prayer for those who died at sea or were “abandoned in the desert.”
“It must be said clearly: there are those who systematically work by all means to repel migrants. And this, when done with conscience and responsibility, is a grave sin,” the Pope insisted during his weekly general audience at the Vatican.
“Some deserts, unfortunately, also become graveyards for migrants. Often, these are not ‘natural’ deaths here either. No. Sometimes they are taken to the desert and abandoned there,” he added.
The Argentine pope, a fervent defender of migrants, did not mention any country, but his remarks can be interpreted as a reference to current events, especially in Europe and Mexico.
In mid-2023, dozens of sub-Saharan migrants were rescued by Libyan guards, who claimed to have been expelled and abandoned by Tunisian authorities in a desert area on the border between the two countries. Images of thirsty men and women wandering through the desert were broadcast around the world.
In May, the European Union acknowledged “a difficult situation” after publishing a journalistic investigation that revealed that tens of thousands of migrants had been arrested and abandoned in the desert in Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania, with financial support from the EU.
The EU recently adopted a major reform of its asylum and migration policy, with the aim of tightening arrival controls and speeding up the return of migrants who do not obtain the right to asylum.
The 87-year-old Pope once again called the Mediterranean Sea a “cemetery.”
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“The tragedy is that many, most of these dead, could have been saved,” he stressed.
According to him, the solution to the migratory flow does not involve “more restrictive laws” or “the militarization of borders,” but rather the expansion of “safe and legal access routes.”
In 2023, more than 3,000 migrants were reported missing after trying to cross the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).