ローマ教皇、レスボス島を再訪　移民無視は「文明の難破」

【アテネＡＦＰ＝時事】ローマ・カトリック教会のフランシスコ教皇は５日、地中海を渡って欧州を目指す移民・難民が集まるギリシャ・レスボス島を再訪し、移民問題への無関心は「文明の難破」だと述べた。（写真はギリシャ・レスボス島の施設で難民の少女と交流するフランシスコ教皇）
　フランシスコ教皇はかねて移民らを擁護しており、レスボス島を訪れるのは２０１６年の移民危機以来２回目。ギリシャ訪問初日の４日には、欧州の移民への対応について「国家主義的なエゴイズムに引き裂かれている」と厳しく非難している。
　移民や難民約２２００人が暮らすレスボス島のキャンプに２時間余り滞在した教皇は、「欧州には、この問題を自分たちとは関係ないものとして扱い続ける人々がいる」と語った。
　また、地中海について「墓標のない恐ろしい墓地と化しつつある」と警告し、「これほど時間がたったにもかかわらず、移民問題に関しては世界はほとんど変わっていない」と嘆いた。
　教皇は、子ども数十人やその家族らと交流し、通訳を介して「あなた方を助けようとしています」と語り掛けた。男の子を抱き締める場面もあった。一方でテントに集まった人々が教皇を前に歌や賛美歌をうたうと、教皇は心を動かされる様子を見せた。
　国際移住機関（ＩＯＭ）によると、今年はこれまでに危険な地中海横断を試みた移民１５５９人が死亡したか行方不明になっている。
　ここ数週間では、ベラルーシとポーランドの国境で移民数人が死亡。先月にはフランスから英国を目指した移民のボートが沈み、２７人が死亡した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/12/07-12:15）

Pope Francis on Sunday returned to the island of Lesbos, the migration flashpoint he first visited in 2016, calling the neglect of migrants the shipwreck of civilisation.
The pope has long championed the cause of migrants and his visit comes a day after he delivered a stinging rebuke to Europe which he said was torn by nationalist egoism.
In Europe there are those who persist in treating the problem as a matter that does not concern them, the pope said as he spent some two hours at the Mavrovouni camp on Lesbos, where nearly 2,200 asylum-seekers live.
On the second day of his visit to Greece, he met dozens of child asylum-seekers and relatives standing behind metal barriers and stopped to embrace a boy called Mustafa.
I am trying to help you, Francis told one group through his interpreter.
People later gathered in a tent to sing songs and psalms to the pontiff, who listened to them, visibly moved.
His visit is a blessing, said Rosette Leo, a Congolese asylum-seeker at the site.
However, Menal Albilal, a Syrian mother with a two-month-old baby whose asylum claim was rejected after two years on the island, said refugees want more than words, we need help.
The conditions here are not good for a baby, she told AFP.
- 'A grim cemetery' -
Pope Francis warned that the Mediterranean is becoming a grim cemetery without tombstones and that after all this time, we see that little in the world has changed with regard to the issue of migration.
The root causes should be confronted -- not the poor people who pay the consequences and are even used for political propaganda, he added.
According to the International Organization for Migration, 1,559 people have died or gone missing attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing this year.
Several people have died on the Belarus-Poland border in recent weeks, caught between the two countries' border guards. The European Union accuses Minsk of having weaponised migrants against the West.
And 27 people drowned in a single incident last month trying to cross to England. Britain and France have traded barbs over the increasing number of migrants attempting the deadly Channel crossing.
- 'Terrible modern Odyssey' -
The temporary Mavrovouni tent camp was hurriedly erected after the sprawling camp of Moria, Europe's largest such site at the time, burned down last year.
Greek authorities blamed a group of young Afghans for the incident and security was substantially enhanced for the pontiff's Sunday visit.
The pope's trip to Lesbos was shorter than his last as he later held a mass for some 2,500 people at the Megaron Athens Concert Hall.
In Cyprus, which the pope visited before Greece this week, authorities said that 50 migrants would be relocated to Italy thanks to Francis.
He took 12 Syrian refugees with him during his last visit to Lesbos in 2016.
- EU 'torn by egoism' -
At the start of his Athens visit on Saturday, Francis said that today, and not only in Europe, we are witnessing a retreat from democracy, warning against populism's easy answers.
In 2016, Francis visited Moria with Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, and Archbishop Ieronymos II, head of the Church of Greece.
The Mavrovouni camp currently holds 2,193 people and has a capacity of 8,000, a facility official said this week.
Authorities insist asylum procedures and processing times are now faster.
With EU funds, Greece is building a series of closed facilities on Greek islands with barbed wire fencing, surveillance cameras, X-ray scanners and magnetic gates that are closed at night.
Three such camps have opened on the islands of Samos, Leros and Kos, with Lesbos and Chios to follow next year.
Once asylum-seekers are recognised as refugees, they are no longer eligible to remain in the camps, a fate shared with migrants whose requests for protection are rejected and who face deportation.
Many of these refugees are unable to find accommodation or work, another criticism that charities and aid agencies direct at the Greek state.
The groups have also raised concerns about the new camps, arguing that people's movements should not be restricted as well as claiming Greek border officers have pushed back migrants.
Greece vehemently denies the claims, insisting its coastguard saves lives at sea.