No ‘Sea of Death’: Pope Calls for Pan-European Action on Migration

French President Emmanuel Macron (2ndL) and his wife Brigitte (L) greet Pope Francis upon his arrival at the Palais du Pharo in the southern port city of Marseille on September 23, 2023. (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron (2ndL) and his wife Brigitte (L) greet Pope Francis upon his arrival at the Palais du Pharo in the southern port city of Marseille on September 23, 2023. (AFP)
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No ‘Sea of Death’: Pope Calls for Pan-European Action on Migration

French President Emmanuel Macron (2ndL) and his wife Brigitte (L) greet Pope Francis upon his arrival at the Palais du Pharo in the southern port city of Marseille on September 23, 2023. (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron (2ndL) and his wife Brigitte (L) greet Pope Francis upon his arrival at the Palais du Pharo in the southern port city of Marseille on September 23, 2023. (AFP)

Pope Francis on Saturday condemned "belligerent nationalisms" and called for a pan-European response to migration to stop the Mediterranean, where thousands have drowned, from becoming "the graveyard of dignity".

Francis spoke out in favor of welcoming migrants, in a long speech that concluded a Church conference on Mediterranean issues in Marseille, a French port that for centuries has been a crossroads of cultures and religions.

"There is a cry of pain that resonates most of all, and it is turning the Mediterranean, the 'mare nostrum', from the cradle of civilization into the 'mare mortuum', the graveyard of dignity: it is the stifled cry of migrant brothers and sisters," he said, using Latin terms meaning "our sea" and "sea of death".

Francis was welcomed at the windy portside where the conference center is located by President Emmanuel Macron, with whom he was due to have a private meeting later on Saturday before returning to Rome.

The pope began the day by visiting a center for the needy in Marseilles' Saint Mauront district, one of France's poorest, run by the order of nuns founded by Saint Mother Teresa.

Later at the conference, he called for "an ample number of legal and regular entrances" of migrants, with emphasis on accepting those fleeing war, hunger and poverty, rather than on "preservation of one's own wellbeing".

According to UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, about 178,500 migrants have come to Europe via the Mediterranean this year, while about 2,500 died or went missing.

Governments in several European countries, including Italy, Hungary, and Poland, are led by outspoken opponents of immigration.

Francis called on people to "hear the cries of pain" rising from North Africa and the Middle East.

"How greatly we need this at the present juncture, when antiquated and belligerent nationalisms want to make the dream of the community of nations fade!" he said. He did not name any countries.

While Francis has said often that migrants should be shared among the 27 EU countries, his overall openness towards migrants, including once calling their exclusion "scandalous, disgusting and sinful," has riled conservative politicians.

His 27-hour trip has been dominated by migration issues. On Friday, he said migrants who risk drowning at sea "must be rescued" because doing so was "a duty of humanity" and that those who impede rescues commit "a gesture of hate".



Trump Visits North Carolina and Los Angeles in Tour of Disaster Zones

President Donald Trump is briefed on the effects of Hurricane Helene at Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as first lady Melania Trump looks on. (AP)
President Donald Trump is briefed on the effects of Hurricane Helene at Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as first lady Melania Trump looks on. (AP)
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Trump Visits North Carolina and Los Angeles in Tour of Disaster Zones

President Donald Trump is briefed on the effects of Hurricane Helene at Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as first lady Melania Trump looks on. (AP)
President Donald Trump is briefed on the effects of Hurricane Helene at Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as first lady Melania Trump looks on. (AP)

US President Donald Trump visited disaster-hit western North Carolina on Friday and was traveling later to Los Angeles, promising help while stoking partisan tensions with Democratic rivals over recovery efforts.

Trump's first trip since reclaiming the presidency on Monday could provide an opportunity to assure residents that the federal government will help those whose lives have been upended by hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.

On arrival in Asheville, North Carolina, he sharply attacked the Federal Emergency Management Agency's handling of the after-effects of September's Hurricane Helene. FEMA was run by then-President Joe Biden's administration for the last four years.

During a briefing about recovery efforts, the Republican Trump promised to speedily help North Carolina "get the help you need" to rebuild.

He said he would prefer the states be given federal money to handle disasters themselves rather than rely on FEMA to do the job. He said he would sign an executive order aimed at what he said would address problems inherent to FEMA.

"I think we're going to recommend that FEMA go away," he said.

Trump complained that Biden did not do enough to help western North Carolina recover from the hurricane, an accusation the Biden administration rejected as misinformation.

Trump also sharply criticized Democratic officials' response to wildfires in Los Angeles that have caused widespread destruction this month. His Republican colleagues in Congress have threatened to withhold disaster aid for the region.

Trump was due to visit Los Angeles later in the day while three massive blazes still threaten the region.

NEWSOM TO GREET TRUMP IN LOS ANGELES

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump also threatened to withhold aid and repeated a false claim that California Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials have refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires.

"I don't think we should give California anything until they let the water flow down," Trump said.

He has falsely claimed that Newsom, a Democrat, prioritized the preservation of endangered fish over public safety. Newsom has said there is no connection between the fish and the fire.

The governor told reporters on Thursday that he planned to be on hand at Los Angeles International Airport to greet Trump.

"I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president and welcome him," Newsom said.

Trump has accused Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass - who was out of the country when the fires broke out - of "gross incompetence," pointing to what he called a lack of preparation and ineffective or harmful water management policies.

“It's ashes, and Gavin Newscum (sic) should resign. This is all his fault!!!,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, denigrating the governor by misspelling his name.

Water shortages caused some hydrants to run dry in affluent Pacific Palisades, hindering the early response. When the fires broke out, one of the reservoirs that could have supplied more water to the area was empty for a year. Officials have promised an investigation into why it was dry.

Mayor Bass and fire officials have said the hydrants were not designed to deal with such a massive disaster, and stressed the unprecedented nature of the fires.

Trump has focused some of his criticism on California's complicated policies for sharing the plentiful water supply found in the northern part of the state with the parched south. The diversion results in the discharge of some water into the ocean, something Trump has depicted as a callous waste.

Newsom has dismissed those attacks as groundless, and experts have said that the diversions, in part designed to protect agricultural interests, have played little or no part in the difficulties encountered in fighting the fires.

Since the fires broke out on Jan. 7, they have killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures, authorities say. Much of Southern California remains under a red-flag warning for extreme fire risk due to strong, dry winds.