Following his visit to the squalid refugee camp at Moria, Lesbos on April 16, Pope Francis rescued 12 Syrian refugees from three families. He then took them back to the Vatican aboard the papal plane. The “guests of the Vatican” had been given Italian humanitarian visas and would now apply for asylum. A statement issued by the Vatican read:
“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. These are all people who were already in camps in Lesbos before the agreement between the European Union and Turkey.
“All the members of the three families are Muslims. Two families come from Damascus, and one from Deir Azzor (in the area occupied by Daesh). 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.”
Two of the refugees, Nour and Hasan, are both engineers who lived with their two-year-old child in Zabatani, a mountainous area near the Lebanese border. Another family with two children, hailed from Damascus, while a third family with three children came from Deir el-Zour, a city close to the Iraqi border.
A new deal between the EU and Turkey, implemented on March 20, mandates deportation of migrants arriving illegally on the Greek islands, unless they successfully claim for asylum. In return, for every Syrian returned to Turkey, the EU will take another Syrian directly from Turkey.
Refugees are not numbers, they are people who have faces, names, stories, and need to be treated as such.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) April 16, 2016
Earlier, addressing a large group of asylum seekers in a reception camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, Pope Francis said “refugees were not numbers but people who have faces, names, individual stories, and need to be treated as such.” He also urged the European Union to change its policy towards the migrants.
“I want to tell you, you are not alone. As people of faith, we wish to join our voices to speak out on your behalf. Do not lose hope… 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.”
Pope Francis said during his return flight to Rome from Lesbos that the governments and the people must take a real responsibility for welcoming and integrating refugees.
“We must make bridges and bridges are made with intelligence, dialogue, integration. I understand the fear, but to close the borders doesn’t resolve anything. Because in the long run, that closure will hurt the people themselves. Europe must make a policy of welcoming, integration, growth, work, the reform of the economy. All of these are the bridges that lead us to not making walls. After what I’ve seen in that refugee camp, and what you saw, was to cry about.
“The kids. They’ve given me so many drawings. The children want peace because they’re suffering. It’s true that there they have educational courses in the camp. What have they seen? Look at this: what they’ve seen: a drowned child! The kids have got this in their hearts. Today was truly to cry about. It was to cry about. The same drawing was made by an Afghan child. These children have this in their memories. They’ll need time to remove this from their memories. There was a sun that cried in the drawing. A tear would also do us well.”
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One can only imagine the horror they will go through at the hands of these sick people.
How terrible and horrible decision Pope made to bring 12 Muslims leaving Christians to suffer as refugees. Syrian Christians are the ones who escaped from religious killing and torture and they needed care and protection from Christian leadership. If Pope wanted to do something Christian families should have given priority. In this case, I feel Pope played political game and tactic, and there is no any religious reasons. It’s a shameful act and all Christians should criticize this.