VATICAN CITY, Dec 2: Pope John Paul condemned xenophobia on Monday, saying too many migrants suffered discrimination because of their race or culture.

Hostility to newcomers because of “ethnic or other external characteristics”, different language or traditions is “latent discrimination... and a cause of grave concern to pastors and faithful alike,” he said.

But he also said immigrants must strive to “honour the countries which receive them and to respect the laws, culture and traditions of the people who have welcomed them”.

In a message for the church’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees next year, he urged people to open their minds and hearts rather than reject newcomers simply “because they do not speak the local language or follow local customs”.

All should “learn to discern in people of other cultures the handiwork of God”, he added.

Some 191 million people live far from their homeland, according to the Vatican. Some 175 million are economic migrants and 16 million political refugees.

The Pope warned those most vulnerable were “undocumented migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, those displaced by continuing violent conflicts... and the victims — mostly women and children — of the terrible crime of human trafficking”.

The Pontiff said the ethnic or nationalistic pressures that forced some people to migrate were especially wrong.

“At the root of these situations there are sinful intentions and actions that go contrary to the Gospel and constitute a call to Christians everywhere to overcome evil with good,” he said.

The release of the message came amid news that dozens of illegal immigrants trying to reach Europe had drowned off the coasts of Libya and Morocco.

The bodies of 32 migrants were washed up on Moroccan shores while at least 12 people were found drowned off Libya and more than 50 were still missing after their boats sank.

“Two more immigration tragedies... in these days have made the Pope’s message even more painful,” the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano wrote on Monday.

At a news conference to present the Pope’s message, Vatican officials said the September 11 attacks on the United States had fuelled racism.

“Among the many causes of an increase in racism and xenophobia against migrants and refugees, the events of September 11 are just the most recent,” said Monsignor Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Vatican’s department for migration.

He said others included attempts to link migrants, refugees and the homeless to crime and using them as scapegoats to mask problems linked to unemployment.—Reuters