Pope calls for global cooperation on migration crisis
Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:37pm GMT
VATICAN CITY, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Pope Francis called on Tuesday for
countries to join forces to help the rising number of migrants, thousands of
whom have died this year on perilous journeys to flee poverty and war.
The pontiff's message comes as seaborne migration from North Africa to
Europe is at a record high and the United States is seeing a surge in the
number of children from Central America attempting to cross its southern
border.
"Large numbers of people are leaving their homelands, with a suitcase full
of fears and desires, to undertake a hopeful and dangerous trip in search of
more humane living conditions," the pope said in a message.
Francis called for "a universal network of cooperation", saying
organisations around the world were making "laudable" efforts but that more
decisive action was needed to ensure humane conditions for migrants.
On Sunday, 40 people were reported missing after their raft sank 30 miles
(48 km) from eastern Libya, prompting Italian authorities to deploy their
"Mare Nostrum" rescue mission.
Violence and political chaos in Libya has been exploited by traffickers who
pack people, many fleeing the conflict in Syria or forced conscription in
Eritrea, into rickety boats, charging around $1,000 for the passage.
Last week, the International Organisation for Migration said there had been
almost 3,000 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean so far this year.
Libya's outgoing justice minister Salah Bashir Marghani said last week that
Libya, where armed groups have seized the capital Tripoli, needed its
neighbours to help solve the problem.
"We need to have a proper country to do (these) things. A country at war
with itself can hardly have control," Marghani told reporters in Rome.
U.S. President Barack Obama has delayed taking executive action on
immigration reform until after elections in November, having said the surge
of nearly 63,000 children crossing into the United States from Central
America in the past year had made Americans wary of new measures.
Rome has repeatedly called for more help from its European partners to
tackle the emergency and the EU Commission has said its border control
agency Frontex would reinforce Mare Nostrum.
Pope Francis also called for "a more just and equitable financial and
economic order". His first trip after his election in 2013 was to the
Italian island of Lampedusa, halfway between Sicily and Tunisia, where many
migrant boats arrive. (Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Raissa
Kasolowsky)