International News

LESBOS, Greece, (APP/AFP) – Pope Francis on
Saturday arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos for a high-profile
visit that will again turn the spotlight on a controversial EU
deal to end an unprecedented refugee crisis.
“This is a voyage marked by sadness, a sad voyage,” the
pope told reporters during the flight from Rome.
“We will witness the worst humanitarian disaster since
the Second World War. We will see so many people who are suffering,
who are fleeing and do not know where to go,” the pontiff
said.
“And we are also going to a cemetery, the sea. So many
people never arrived,” he said.
The Greek island, where hundreds of thousands of
asylum-seekers and other migrants have arrived in recent months,
is on the frontline of a humanitarian crisis that has sparked
disagreements between European countries and brought the bloc’s
system of open borders to the brink of collapse.
The island has also become the focus for criticism of
the EU’s March deal to ensure so-called economic migrants who
travel to the Greek islands on boats operated by people smugglers
are quickly sent back to Turkey, which has agreed to take them
in return for billions in EU cash.