ATHENS, December 6, Reuters -- Pope Francis heard from young people including children of migrants who have fled war or poverty on Monday at a school in Athens, as he wrapped up a trip to the Mediterranean in which he defended the rights of refugees and condemned those who exploit their plight for political gain.
The pope's last event in Greece was a visit to a Catholic-run school where he listened to accounts from several students, including 12 year-old Aboud Gabro whose family left Syria after their house in Aleppo took a direct hit by a bomb in 2014.
Francis returned to Lesbos, the Greek island that began in 2015, after a five-day visit to Cyprus and Greece, where he urged children to become more social instead of slaves of social media and prisoners of cell phones. Francis called the Mediterranean, where thousands of people have drowned trying to make the crossing to Europe, a grim cemetery without tombstones, and more recently Cyprus, are the main gateways into the European Union for people trying to escape war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond.
Nearly a million people, mostly Syrians, crossed to Greece from Turkey in 2015 before travelling to richer northern European countries, where their arrival has fuelled support for populists and far-right groups.
Francis said at a meeting with migrants in Cyprus that migrants are held in Libya and elsewhere in Nazi and Soviet camps.
The pontiff arranged to have 50 migrants living in Cyprus relocated to Rome.