LAMPEDUSA: Pope Leo XIV on Saturday pressed Europe to do more to protect and integrate migrants as he visited Italy’s Lampedusa island, a major port of call for those risking the perilous crossing from Africa.

His trip to the migration frontline was a stark message to both EU and US leaders in a period of both growing intolerance and indifference. The Catholic Church’s first US pope, who has clashed with President Donald Trump’s administration over its treatment of migrants, chose to mark July 4, the United States’ 250th anniversary of independence, at a migration hotspot.

Leo’s visit also comes just two weeks after the European Union’s approval of new migrant rules allowing much broader detention powers and the creation of deportation centres outside the bloc.

“From this far-flung corner of Europe on the Mediterranean Sea, one can more clearly perceive the momentous challenge that the phenomenon of migration poses to European societies,” Leo told crowds of faithful.

Yet “Europe is capable of addressing the crisis — in this region — in a comprehensive manner, integrating immediate relief efforts into a long-term strategic plan capable of receiving, protecting, supporting and integrating migrants,” he said. It should do so “while at the same time assisting developing countries so that no one is forced to emigrate”, he added.

The 70-year-old began his visit by praying at the unmarked graves of shipwreck victims. He then stood alone on the island’s rocky shoreline, buffeted by the wind as he looked out to sea, where countless migrant boats have been lost to the waves on the frontier between Africa and Europe.

Pope Leo spoke to a migrant family, before taking the children by the hand and standing along with their pregnant mother at the “Door of Europe”, a monument dedicated to people who risk everything in search of a better life.

Solidarity

Lampedusa sits 90 miles (145 kilometres) off the coast of Tunisia and has cared for thousands of migrants — and taken in their dead. The pope thanked the fishing and tourism community of 6,000 “for the solidarity that so many of you have shown”.

He also paid homage to those who have died during the crossing, saying “we feel their presence, which challenges us no less than that of those who have landed in need of attention and aid”.

In 2013, more than 360 people died in the island’s worst shipwreck, and dozens more have drowned in the years since. The pope also visited the pier where people rescued at sea are brought to safety, and blessed a plaque dedicated to Pope Francis — who chose Lampedusa for his very first trip following his election in 2013.

Leo’s presence “sends a clear me­­­s­­­sage at a time when the global political debate on migration is often framed around borders and deterrence rather than protection and shared responsibility”, Filippo Ung­aro, spokesman for the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, said.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2026