Why is the Pope’s trip to France dedicated to migrants occurring at a critical time for Europe?

When I arrive in Marseille, the Pope Francis On Friday the 22nd, he will become the first head of the Catholic Church to visit France since Benedict XVI did so in 2008. This trip also stands out because at the heart of the pontiff’s message will be a call to act urgently to stop the crisis of migrants who risk their lives every day in the Mediterranean to reach Europe.

READ TOO: Pope Francis calls for protection of “human dignity” in the face of the “migratory phenomenon”

From Marseille, a port city in southeastern France and a key destination for many migrants in North Africa, Francis will meet with 60 Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean, that is, North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and southern Africa. Europe. make a more unitary call. The pontiff will close a summit that brings together these religious and that has been planned for months.

The Pope will also meet with young people from these regions in Marseille, which is one of the most culturally, religiously and ethnically diverse cities on the Mediterranean coast.

This photo taken on September 29, 2018 shows a general view of Marseille in southern France. (Photo: AFP) (BORIS HORVAT/)

On Saturday, he will preside over a mass at the Vélodrome stadium with around 57 thousand faithful, which will be attended by French President Emmanuel Macron, despite his participation having been criticized among left-wing parties in this strictly secular country.

The visit to Marseille is in itself a papal message. Not only is it the second city in France and one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean, but it also brings together migrants from very diverse origins. It welcomed Italians, Spaniards, Armenians, Jews from Central Europe or North Africa, North Africans and people from the former colonies of North or East Africa and the Comoros, who settled in the center of the city, known for its multiculturalism. “I will go to Marseille, but not to France”warned the pontiff in August.

Pope Francis, an Argentine Jesuit, defended the arrival of migrants to the Mediterranean throughout his pontificate. (Photo: AFP)

The Pope has often spoken of the horrors that many migrants suffer in North Africa in brutal or abandoned camps in the middle of the desert and will highlight the causes of the phenomenon, from poverty to climate change. “The Mediterranean is a cemetery. But not the biggest: the biggest cemetery is North Africaa,” Francis told reporters in August.

For this reason, he will ask for greater tolerance towards migrants, despite the risk of offending a part of French Catholics, particularly conservatives, who consider his messages of compassion excessive.

The AP agency recalls that the migration crisis has been one of the priorities of Francis’ papacy, who traveled to the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013, where he celebrated mass on an altar built with wood from shipwrecks, and threw flowers into the sea in memory of the migrants. drowned and criticized the “globalization of indifference” that the world shows towards them.

The Pope’s visit to Marseille It comes at a time when the migration crisis in the Mediterranean has once again raised alarm bells, following the arrival of almost 7,000 people in Lampedusa in a single day last week, briefly outnumbering the local population.

Migrants wait at the operational center called “Hotspot” to receive registration documents from the Red Cross on the Italian island of Lampedusa, on September 17, 2023. (Photo: AFP) (ZAKARIA ABDELKAFI/)

In total, between Monday and Wednesday, around 8,500 migrants arrived on the Italian island aboard almost 200 boats. The images went around the world and provoked a new round of promises of solidarity from European countries.

One of the solutions that was put on the table is the implementation of a naval blockade to prevent ships from leaving, a policy that the Pope Francis denies. An operation of this type, financed by the EU, returns migrants to Libyan territory, where they are transferred to places that the pontiff considers to be modern concentration camps.

“The situation in Italy is unsustainable, thousands and thousands of immigrants arrive on the island of Lampedusa. There you have an identification center where supposedly 400 people could stay, but there are 3000. It’s out of control, it’s an incredible thing, there’s no governance, the problem is community“, Italian international analyst Francesco Tucci told El Comercio.

For the expert, the problem is the governance of the European Union, as he considers that many mistakes have been made since at least 2015. He highlights that part of the crisis worsened because there was no desire to modify the Dublin regulation, which establishes that quotas for Distribution of irregular migrants between European Union countries is voluntary.

Authorities hand out bottles of water to migrants sitting on the deck of a rescue ship in the port of the Italian island of Lampedusa, on September 16, 2023. (Photo: AFP) (ZAKARIA ABDELKAFI/)

“The first host countries are where identification must occur and political asylum is eventually recognized. This is what the Dublin regulations establish. The first recipient countries are Greece, Italy, Spain. Italy receives the most migrants via the Central Mediterranean route, thousands arrive daily and countries like France have strengthened border controls to prevent irregular migrants from passing from Italy to France because France refuses to help, as do countries in Eastern Europe, who do not want to accept quotas“, he states.

“The European Union works until everything goes relatively well, but when there is an economic or migration crisis, there is a lack of solidarity between countries. This European Union could suffer serious crises due to the lack of solidarity among its members.” he adds.

In this scenario, it remains to be seen whether Pope Francis’ visit to Marseille will be able to convince countries such as France, Germany and those in Eastern Europe, such as Hungary and Poland, to receive migrants. Although one of the imminent challenges is the difficulty of identifying who really has the right to political asylum.

Tucci highlights that it takes an average of a year to identify this type of person. “However, migrants remain in identification centers in inhumane conditions because they are full. It is an unsustainable situation and many migrants also flee and may become victims of Italian organized crime.“, he points out.

Therefore, he considers that the Pope can pressure, but cannot do more, despite his intentions. The expert also doubts that the pontiff will really be heard by European leaders.

“He will try to put pressure on, we will see what happens and, be careful, Marseille is not an easy city, it is a city where there is a lot of crime and drug trafficking, there are criminal gangs. Let’s see if the father can at least raise public opinion that can boost government action. I have my doubts because this pattern has been observed for years. When there were strong crises there was no solidarity. I believe this pattern will continue, especially given the current heads of state and government in Eastern Europe.”, concludes the analyst.

Source: Elcomercio