Madrid.- El papa Francisco criticó este jueves a Europa porque "no se puede hablar de dignidad y dejar que los mares sean cementerios", en referencia a los inmigrantes que tratan de llegar desde África aun a riesgo de morir en el intento.
"No basta gestionar llegadas, distribuir cifras, reforzar fronteras o lamentar las muertes cuando ya han ocurrido", reprochó Francisco a toda la comunidad internacional en un discurso pronunciado este jueves en el muelle de Arguineguín (isla española de Gran Canaria).
En este drama, aseguró el pontífice, "la Iglesia no puede permanecer muda ante quienes son abandonados" en el mar.
Y se preguntó "if we have recognized Christ in those who arrive marked by fear, hunger and violence after the desert, night and sea."
"The welcome of migrants cannot be secondary or delegated solely to some volunteers," he stressed. "We cannot pass by boats and rafts," he added.
The pope traveled today from the peninsular city of Barcelona to the Spanish Atlantic islands of the Canaries, "where so many wounded lives arrive, stripped of almost everything but never of their dignity:" the thousands of immigrants who every year risk their lives in uncertain maritime crossings to reach European territory.
Indeed, the port of Arguineguín was known as the "port of shame" in 2020 when more than 2,300 immigrants were crammed for several days.
Therefore, this migratory drama "must become a conscience examination."
The pope hopes, according to his harsh speech, that the voices of the dramatic testimonies of immigration he heard this Thursday in Arguineguín reach "those who have decisive responsibilities" on this issue.
"Every boat that arrives does not bring only migrants; it brings with it a question: what world have we built if so many brothers must risk death to seek life?", He highlighted.
For this reason, he criticized Europe "cannot proclaim human dignity and get used to the Mediterranean and Atlantic being cemeteries without tombstones."
The indignation of Pope Francis resonated just 24 hours before the European Migration and Asylum Pact enters into force, which enshrines the principle of border retention and allows states to free themselves from accepting the quota of refugees they owe to help receiving countries if they pay 20,000 euros per person.
International cooperation, peace, justice, and development
He also exhorted origin countries of immigrants to create "conditions of peace, justice, and development," and transit countries he asked them to protect and not leave the weak in the hands of criminal networks.
And demanded "effective and persevering cooperation" from the entire international community.
The pontiff also stressed that "human dignity requires legal and safe routes, rescue and assistance, effective real cooperation against traffickers, protection for victims, serious processes of welcome and integration, and policies that allow each person to live with dignity in their own land."
"While there is a right to seek refuge when life is threatened, there is also the right not to have to migrate -synthesized-: the right to remain in one’s home without hunger, without war, without persecution, without violence, without the earth becoming uninhabitable, without corruption stealing bread from the poor, without weapons destroying children’s future."
