Defiant Pope Francis takes refugees to Rome after Lesbos visit

Pope Francis has taken a dozen highly vulnerable refugees who faced deportation from the Greek island of Lesbos back to Rome, offering them refuge in a rebuke to the EU’s policy of sending migrants and refugees back to Turkey.
The leader of the Roman Catholic church made the unprecedented intervention on Saturday during a trip to the island to highlight the refugee crisis unfolding across the continent.

The pontiff spent five hours on Lesbos with Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, and Ieronymos II, the archbishop of Athens and Greece, meeting refugees and holding a service to bless those who have died trying to reach Europe.

Fuelling belief that the Catholic church is at odds with the EU’s stance on the crisis, Pope Francis took 12 refugees back to the Vatican. An official confirmed all those taken from the camp were Syrian Muslims, six of them minors who arrived Lesbos before the deportation deal came into effect.

A spokesman for the Holy See said: “The pope has desired to make a gesture of welcome regarding refugees, accompanying on his plane to Rome three families of refugees from Syria, 12 people in all, including six children.
“Two families come from Damascus, and one from Deir Azzor (in the area occupied by Isis). Their homes had been bombed. The Vatican will take responsibility for bringing in and maintaining the three families. The initial hospitality will be taken care of by the Community of Sant’Egidio.”

The pontiff spent the morning meeting hundreds of migrants and refugees in a notorious detention centre on the island. Men and women held in the camp wept as he toured the site.

The pope was met at Mytilene’s airport by the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, at the start of his biggest effort yet to highlight the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Europe. Lesbos has borne the brunt of the refugee influx with more than 850,000 of the 1.1 million Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis who streamed into Europe last year coming through the island. “Greece has been an example of humanity,” he said.

The visit is also seen as a further warming of ties between the western and eastern branches of Christianity, almost a millennium after their bitter split in 1054. In a break with protocol, the pope chose to be driven to the detention camp, in the hills above Mytilene outside the village of Moria, with Bartholomew.

Addressing refugees, he said: “I am here to tell you, you are not alone … The Greek people have generously responded to your needs despite their own difficulties. Yes, so much more needs to be done but let us thank God that in our suffering he never leaves us alone.

“We hope that the world will heed these scenes of tragic and indeed desperate need, and respond in a way worthy of our common humanity.”
After having lunch with eight refugees in Moria, the three church leaders held a memorial for the victims of migration at Mytilene’s port – earlier this month the site of the first deportations under the EU-Turkey deal.

Addressing a large crowd, the pontiff issued an appeal for “responsibility and solidarity” towards refugees from the picturesque harbour. He said refugees were forced to live in “a climate of angst and fear and uncertainty over their future”, adding: “Before they are numbers, refugees are first and foremost human beings.”

Greece’s leftist-led government described Saturday’s visit of religious leaders as extremely significant. Tsipras was expected to underline Greece’s increasingly fragile situation in talks with the pope.

The country has been struggling to house refugees in makeshift facilities even though the number of arrivals has dropped dramatically since the deportation deal came into effect on 20 March.

For detainees who have arrived since then, conditions have deteriorated dramatically. Human rights organisations have withdrawn from Moria and other detention centres for fear of being associated with an operation of mass expulsions.
CREDIT: The Guardian