Speaking from the port of Arguineguin, where thousands of African migrants spent the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic confined to the waterfront without access to adequate food and shelter, he called on authorities to show greater compassion for those who “risk death to seek a better life.”
“It is not enough to manage arrivals, disseminate statistics, strengthen borders or mourn the deaths after they have occurred,” he said, addressing the crowd, which included migrants. — You are not just numbers or case files. You are people who left behind families and homes. You have dreams that no one has the right to ignore, he said.
“Human dignity has no passport”
The pope criticized Europe for claiming to defend human dignity while “getting used to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic serving as cemeteries without tombstones.” — Human dignity does not have a passport and does not lose its value when crossing the border, he added.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez accompanied the Pope on a trip to the Canary Islands archipelago, which was intended to emphasize their common support for migrant-friendly policies.
Last April, the center-left government in Madrid announced that it would give legal status to 500,000 people. immigrants. The center-right People's Party and the far-right group Vox oppose this move. Both parties recently adopted the so-called national priority policy (Spanish: prioridad nacional), which aims to provide Spanish citizens with preferential access to state benefits and services.
Pope Leo made his remarks the day before the EU's new pact on migration and asylum entered into force. The reform aims to strengthen the EU's external borders and enable rejected asylum seekers to be sent to centers outside the EU.
