Skip to main content
Europe’s brutal treatment of refugees ‘the shipwreck of civilisation,’ Pope says on Lesbos visit
Pope Francis meets migrants during his visit at the Karatepe refugee camp, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, Sunday, December 5, 2021

THE Pope said today that Europe’s murderous treatment of refugees marked “the shipwreck of civilisation” as he visited the Mavrovouni refugee camp on Lesbos.

“I ask every man and woman, all of us, to overcome the paralysis of fear, the indifference that kills, the cynical disregard that nonchalantly condemns to death those on the fringes,” the pontiff said at the seaside cluster of box-like UN container-residences ringed with barbed wire.

“Let us stop ignoring reality, stop constantly shifting responsibility, stop passing off the issue of migration to others as if it mattered to no-one and was only a pointless burden to be shouldered by somebody else.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Burnt cars remain in the middle of a street following the re
Features / 22 March 2025
22 March 2025
Ben Chacko asks NIZAR TRABULSI of the now banned Syrian Communist Party (Unified) to explain the country's turbulent, and violent, post-Assad scene
Delegates chat as they leave the Great Hall of the People af
Features / 22 March 2025
22 March 2025
From renewable tech to alternatives to the dollar, BEN CHACKO was encouraged by an optimistic meeting held by the China Media Group this week
Similar stories
First responders carry a body at the site of a mass grave in Raqqa, Syria, the city that served as the de facto capital of the Islamic State group, Sept. 7, 2019
World / 12 May 2025
12 May 2025
Cardinals adjust their mitre hats during a final Mass celebrated by cardinals inside St. Peter's Basilica before the conclave to elect a new pope, at the Vatican, May 7, 2025
Round-up / 7 May 2025
7 May 2025
pope with migrants webpic.jpg
Features / 22 April 2025
22 April 2025

With the death of Pope Francis, the world loses not only a church leader but also a moral compass

PAWNS IN A BRUTAL GAME: Jalal Altawil in Green Border
Cinema / 20 June 2024
20 June 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Green Border, Fancy Dance, Before Dawn and The Exorcism