Migrant crisis: Pope to visit island of Lesbos to highlight plight of refugees

Pope Francis is to visit the Greek island of Lesbos to meet refugees at the centre of the migration crisis. His trip has been scheduled for 16 April and is intended as a show of support for the hundreds of thousands who have made the perilous journey to Europe. "It’s very clear that the pope recognises that there is a significant emergency going on,“ said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi. However, a visit to expose wretched conditions in a refugee camp may embarrass EU leaders already under fire from human rights groups.

Just as he went to Lampedusa, which was then the front line of the Mediterranean route, now that there is this difficult, dramatic situation on the Aegean front, he naturally wants to be present to show a sense of solidarity and responsibility.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi

The announcement came as the first deportations from Greece to Turkey got under way as part of an EU deal to deport those who have failed to gain asylum. Several hundred migrants and refugees have been transported back across the Aegean Sea from the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios this week. Also on Thursday, authorities in Greece said thousands of migrants and refugees camped out at the country’s largest port near Athens have been given two weeks to move to army-built camps voluntarily or be expelled by force. They also arrested a 36-year-old man after finding 17 migrants hidden beneath a false floor in his truck in the north of the country. And scuffles broke out between migrants and police as violence again flared in the Idomeni refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian border.

Everything that has been promised, everything that is specified under the accord.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan warns the EU it must keep its side of the refugee deal

refugee pope