Pope Francis arrived on Saturday to the Greek island of Lesbos, which is flooded by thousands of immigrants from the war-torn Middle Eastern and Northern African countries, with an official visit.
Pope bringing smiles and hope in Moria, Lesvos, Greece pic.twitter.com/S7VHNm0Xwc
— EASO (@EASO) 16 April 2016
The Pope has already named the current European migration crisis "the most drastic event since the end of the Second World War."
Refugees are not numbers, they are people who have faces, names, stories, and need to be treated as such.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) 16 апреля 2016 г.
He intends to bring back with him ten Syrian refugees from the most vulnerable social groups. The Greek Cabinet Ministry has already called it as a "symbolic gesture."
Pope Francis has met with the Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras, Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop of Athens and all Greece Hieronymus. Ahead of the visit, Francis said he was going on Lesbos "to express solidarity with refugees and with residents of the Island and to all Greek people, so generous in their welcome."
Solidarity is the answer to war and persecution. The Greek people are showing the humane face of Europe. Arrived in Lesvos island.
— Alexis Tsipras (@tsipras_eu) 16 апреля 2016 г.
Europe is facing its most serious migration crisis since the end of the Second World War, which is the result of the armed conflicts and economic problems in the Middle East and North Africa.
According to the EU Agency Frontex, in 2015 1.8 million migrants fled to the EU. As for the International Organization of Migration, in 2015, nearly 3 thousand migrants and refugees sank in the Mediterranean sea. During the first quarter of 2016, nearly 174 thousand people landed on the European coast, with 723 people killed or missing trying to reach Europe.
