Pope Leo defends migrants during Canary Islands visit

Pope Leo denounced human traffickers and urged Europe to protect migrants during a visit to Spain’s Canary Islands, where thousands of people fleeing poverty and conflict have landed after dangerous Atlantic crossings from West Africa.

Speaking at the port of Arguineguín in Gran Canaria, a site once known as the “dock of shame,” Leo said migrants must not be reduced to numbers or case files. He called those who exploit them “monsters” and said indifference to their suffering also demanded a moral reckoning.

“Human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border,” he said, according to NPR and Religion News Service. “Only then can we understand that that little girl could be our daughter, and that those faces could be part of our family. Then, our conscience is left with no excuses.”

Migration has been a central theme of Leo’s weeklong tour of Spain, a three-stop visit that culminated in the Canary Islands. The Spanish archipelago, more than 1,000 kilometers from mainland Spain and roughly 60 miles from the African coast, is both a tourist destination and one of Europe’s main entry points for migrants traveling in improvised, overcrowded boats known as “cayucos” and “pateras.”

Arguineguín became a symbol of the crisis in 2020, when more than 3,000 migrants were held in a space designed for 500. Images of exhausted people sleeping on concrete after surviving the Atlantic route exposed the authorities’ struggle to manage the arrivals. Local volunteers and Catholic charities now seek to present it as a “port of hope.”

On the pier, salvage boat captain Tito Villarmea, who has reportedly saved more than 20,000 people, described rescuing a woman who was crying over the body of her teenage daughter, who had died during the journey.

“I wish we didn’t have to save anyone again,” he said. “Let’s work as a society to reduce this tragedy and build a more just world.”

The Canaries received a record 46,843 migrants in 2024, up from fewer than 1,000 in 2015, according to official data cited by Al Jazeera. NPR reported that arrivals have declined after Spain and the European Union reached agreements with Mauritania, Senegal and Morocco to intercept departures and increase patrols. Just over 3,000 migrants have arrived in the islands this year, most from Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Gambia and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa; others arrive by air from Latin America, especially Venezuela and Cuba.

The crossing remains deadly. Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish nongovernmental organization, said nearly 3,090 people died last year trying to reach Spain through the Canary Islands or the Balearic route, and 1,300 died in the first six months of 2026. Al Jazeera reported that more than 3,000 people died last year trying to reach the islands.

Leo said the deaths and exploitation should be an “appeal to the conscience” of countries of origin, transit nations and the wider international community. He also made an “appeal to the conscience of Europe, which cannot claim to uphold human dignity while growing accustomed to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic becoming unmarked graves.”

The pope addressed traffickers directly during the Canary Islands stop, Al Jazeera reported, warning those who “take advantage of people’s desperation” and “organise death routes.”

“Stop. Repent,” he said. “For every life lost, every family deceived … you will have to appear before divine justice.”

At an interim housing center in Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, Leo heard testimonies from migrants. The center has received about 70,000 people since opening in 2021. One woman, Bousso Diouf, told him migrants did not seek special privileges, but “respect, humanity and the opportunity to live with dignity.”

The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, a new legal framework for managing immigration, takes effect Friday. Human rights groups warn it could enable large deportation efforts to migrant camps in Africa. The Rev. Fernando Redondo, who oversees migration for the Spanish bishops’ conference, said European policy is “restrictive” and aimed “not at building bridges but at building walls.”

Leo told migrants they “have a right to be protected” and urged them not to fall for the “siren songs” of those who seek to exploit them. “You are not just numbers or files,” he said. “You are people who have left behind families and homes. You have dreams that no one has the right to despise.”