Pope Leo has appealed to world leaders to treat migrants more humanely, warning in a visit to Spain's Canary Islands that history will condemn those who allowed people fleeing war or poverty to suffer.
In what he called an "appeal to the conscience" of politicians in Europe and the international community, the first US pope said "human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border".
"We cannot grow accustomed to counting the dead," said the Pope on Thursday at Gran Canaria's Port of Arguineguin, dubbed the "Dock of Shame" by relief organisations after some 1000 migrants were stranded in squalid conditions there in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
