The Pope: No European Migration Crisis By Peter West
As expected, the woke Pope has proclaimed that there is no European migration crisis. In fact, the Pope wants open borders migration for Europe, urging political leaders to open their ports to migrants. "May we let ourselves be moved by the stories of so many of our unfortunate brothers and sisters who have the right both to emigrate and not to emigrate, and not become closed in indifference," Francis said. "In the face of the terrible scourge of the exploitation of human beings, the solution is not to reject but to ensure, according to the possibilities of each, an ample number of legal and regular entrances."
The Pope has never interacted with the victims of migrant crime, and operates in a world view where the West has infinite resources to go around, and must be shared. But, as always, my challenge to him is to start this communist process with the Vatican billions, accumulated over the centuries, and once all that is gone, and he is living on the street, maybe we will listen to him:
“Pope Francis pushed back against French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders in Europe on Saturday, challenging them to open their ports to migrants. Francis went on to claim that the continent is not facing a migration "emergency."
The Associated Press reported that Francis does not believe there is a migrant crisis happening in Europe, but that there is a long-term reality that governments around the world have to deal with in a humane way. He continued by suggesting that all European countries should offer a legal path to citizenship.
Francis told Macron and several regional bishops that the Mediterranean Sea "cries out for justice, with its shores that on the one hand exude affluence, consumerism and waste, while on the other there is poverty and instability."
Despite Francis claiming there is no migrant crisis, the reality of what France has faced over the past several months seems to suggest otherwise. The Spectator reported in July that an Algerian woman who allegedly raped and murdered a 12-year-old should have been deported before the incident took place. A second report, from June, revealed that a self-described "Christian from Syria" allegedly went on a stabbing spree in France, leaving several young children in critical condition.
Francis' comments come after the French government has threatened to structure a naval blockade of Tunisia in an effort to step up repatriations, per the report. The government has also increased its patrols on the southern border to keep migrants in Italy from crossing over.
"May we let ourselves be moved by the stories of so many of our unfortunate brothers and sisters who have the right both to emigrate and not to emigrate, and not become closed in indifference," Francis said. "In the face of the terrible scourge of the exploitation of human beings, the solution is not to reject but to ensure, according to the possibilities of each, an ample number of legal and regular entrances."
Macron's government has taken a stronger stance on migration and national security issues after being criticized by conservatives in the country. The AP reported that elections for the European Union's parliament are approaching, and Macron has been reportedly advocating for the EU to bolster its external borders.
There were almost 7,000 migrants who arrived on the small Italian island of Lampedusa in just one day last week, temporarily outnumbering the population that lives there.
But it appears Francis is not convinced there is a problem, instead claiming that talk of migration "emergency" only increases "alarmist propaganda" and plays upon people's fears.
“Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome, for life,” Francis said.
“As for the emergency, the phenomenon of migration is not so much a short-term urgency, always good for fueling alarmist propaganda, but a reality of our times, a process that involves three continents around the Mediterranean and that must be governed with wise foresight, including a European response capable of coping with the objective difficulties.””
“Pope Francis made an impassioned call on Friday to protect migrants who risk their lives to cross the Mediterranean, as political resistance to migration grows across Europe.
“People who are at risk of drowning when abandoned on the waves must be rescued. It is a duty of humanity; it is a duty of civilization,” the pope said in Marseille at a monument to sailors and migrants lost at sea.
The pope’s appeal, delivered from a hilltop with a panoramic view of the sea, came as political leaders around Europe are focused on finding ways to clamp down on migration across the Mediterranean, which has become one of the world’s most frequented—and most dangerous—routes for unauthorized migrants from poor or war-torn countries in Africa, the Middle East and farther afield.
“Too many people, fleeing conflict, poverty and environmental disasters in their search for a better future, find in the waves of the Mediterranean Sea the ultimate rejection. And so this beautiful sea has become a huge cemetery,” Francis said on Friday.
The pope criticized Europe’s quest for deals with authorities in North Africa and elsewhere to stop migrants from reaching the Mediterranean, which has led to human-rights violations in migrant detention camps, according to nongovernmental organizations.
“We cannot be resigned to seeing human beings treated as bargaining chips, imprisoned and tortured in atrocious ways,” Francis said.
The pope, who has made advocacy for refugees and other migrants a signature issue of his pontificate, is visiting the French port city to attend a meeting of Catholic bishops and young people of different faiths from around the Mediterranean, called to address common social problems and particularly the challenge of migration.
On Friday, he was joined by other religious leaders, migrants and representatives of rescue groups for a ceremony at the monument to the drowned, located at the foot of Marseille’s Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde.
“Let us not get used to considering shipwrecks as news stories, and deaths at sea as numbers: no, they are names and surnames, they are faces and stories, they are broken lives and shattered dreams,” the pope said.
“Nobody with his stature is sticking up for migrants the way the pope is,” said Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels, a migration expert at the U.K.’s University of Kent.
French President Emmanuel Macron, with whom the pope is scheduled to meet in Marseille on Saturday, is under pressure from the political right to take a harder line on migration since riots in June and July were sparked by the killing of a youth of North African origin.
Italy’s right-wing government, which came to power last year with a strongly anti-immigration platform, announced plans this week to beef up the detention and deportation of migrants who don’t qualify for asylum. Anti-immigration parties are in power or on the rise in much of the continent.
More refugees and other migrants have crossed the Mediterranean this year than in any since Europe’s migration crisis of 2015-16, when more than a million war refugees from Syria and other migrants trekked across Europe from the Middle East.
According to the United Nations, more than 183,000 “irregular” migrants have arrived in Europe in 2023, over 95% of them by sea and over 70% in Italy, whose tiny southern Mediterranean island of Lampedusa has been overwhelmed in recent weeks.
“I will not allow Italy to become Europe’s refugee camp,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Wednesday in New York, where she is attending the U.N. General Assembly.
The current upsurge in migration is driven by factors including high grain prices caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine, water shortages resulting from climate change, armed conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa, and a desire to escape repressive governments in Tunisia and Egypt, said Lisel Hintz, a professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.”
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