Pope hears appeal from migrants on Lampedusa island

During his visit to the island of Lampedusa today, Pope Francis met a group of migrants, many from North Africa. Lampedusa is closer to North Africa than mainland Italy, and has received tens of thousands of people, from Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Egypt and other nations as they seek a better future in Europe.

After placing a floral wreath at sea in memory of the some 20,000 who have lost their lives on the treacherous journey, Pope Francis listened to a representative of those on the island who survived. Pope Francis desired the half day visit to Lampedusa to express his solidarity with the island’s small local community and the some 500 migrants there today.

Pope Francis thanked the migrants for welcoming him and called for everyone to pray for each other and for those who were not there.

A representative of the migrant then thanked the Pope for his visit and appealed for his help.

He said: "We fled our country for two reasons: political and economic. To arrive here, in this tranquil place, we overcame many obstacles; we were kidnapped by many traffickers. To arrive here, also again in Libya, we have suffered greatly. We would like the Holy Father’s help and we, after a long period of suffering, we have arrived here; we would like other countries to help us. Thank you for your collaboration and we thank God. We here are forced to remain in Italy because Italy has many refugees. We have stayed, we have digital fingerprints and for this we are forced to stay; we are very many migrants and we would like other European countries to help us."

Source: Vatican Radio/VIS