Under a controversial European Union-Turkey deal meant to reduce the flow of refugees into Europe, those arriving on Greek islands after March 20 are returned to Turkey unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece.
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Hundreds of people have died making the short but precarious crossing from Turkey to the Lesbos shores in inflatable dinghies in the past year, and the island is full of unmarked graves.
Continuing his address, Pope Francis offered his prayers for the people of Ecuador, who have been affected by Saturday’s deadly quake, the country’s largest since 1979.
The pope also reinforced this message of solidary while talking to the refugees themselves; in a speech to a camp of Syrian migrants, he told the residents, “Do not lose hope”.
The Pope said: “He is Muslim, and he told me that he married a Christian girl”. Two families are from the capital, Damascus, and one from the city of Deir ez-Zor.
Francis said the Vatican would take full responsibility for the 12 Syrians.
The three families, including six children, are all Muslim and had their homes bombed during the Syrian war.
A group of Syrian refugees board a plane at the airport of Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos, Saturday, April 16, 2016. The families have signed up for classes so they can “communicate quickly with the Italian people”. “And I am just very much appreciated the fact that the pope in many ways has been raising these issues in a global way in the sense that I have been trying to raise them in the United States”, Sanders said, according to AP. “It must inspire governments and societies in a world where the desperate plight of record numbers of forcibly displaced is too often met by barriers, rejection and fear”, said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. The Pope added that he was joined by Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew, and Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, to signify “unity in the charity of all the disciples of the Lord”.
“We have come to call the attention of the world to this grave humanitarian crisis and to plead for its resolution”, the pope said during his visit to the Moria detention facility.
Numerous refugees kissed their hands and asked them to help them make their dreams for a better life come true. At least one sobbing man collapsed at his feet, asking Francis to bless him.
The Vatican squelched those rumors, saying there was no expectation the pope would meet with Sanders and that it was the Pontifical Academy that extended the invitation.
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As the religious leaders left the camp, a woman wearing a crucifix around her neck struggled to break through a security cordon to see the pope.
