We have overcome many obstacles

Pope Francis met a group of migrants, many from North Africa, on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa this morning. Lampedusa is closer to North Africa than mainland Italy, and has received tens of thousands of people, from Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Egypt and other nations as they seek a better future in Europe.

After placing a floral wreath at sea in memory of the some 20,000 who have lost their lives on the treacherous journey, Pope Francis listened to a representative of those on the island who have survived. The Pontiff wanted to visit Lampedusa in order to express his solidarity with the island’s small local community and the some 500 migrants who are also there on the island today.

Having arrived at the port of Favarolo, the Holy Father addressed the gathered crowd (in Italian):

I thank you for this welcome. All of us together today will pray for each other and also for those who are not here with us today. Thank you.

Speaking in Arabic, one of the migrants, representing the hundreds of others who find themselves on that island, then presented an appeal to the Holy Father, on behalf of all those who have come from various parts of North Africa, and hope to be able to enter other parts of Europe:

First of all, we thank the Holy Father for his visit. We would like him to resolve our problem. We fled our country for two reasons: political and economic. To arrive here, in this tranquil place, we overcame many obstacles; we were kidnapped by many traffickers. To arrive here, also again in Libya, we have suffered greatly. We would like the Holy Father’s help and we, after a long period of suffering, we have arrived here; we would like other countries to help us. Thank you for your collaboration and we thank God. We here are forced to remain in Italy because Italy has many refugees. We have stayed, we have digital fingerprints and for this we are forced to stay; we are very many migrants and we would like other European countries to help us.