On the 11th (local time), Pope Leo XIV visited the Canary Islands of Spain, a major gateway for migrants and refugees crossing the Atlantic from Africa, and urged the international community to create safe and legal migration routes and to find ways for social integration.

The pope, who has been visiting Spain since the 6th, visited the Arguineguin port on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands that day, laid flowers and prayed for migrants who died at sea, and met with migrants along with church and humanitarian groups that support them.

The Canary Islands are an archipelago close to Morocco in North Africa, and people seeking to reach Europe by crossing the Atlantic have been flocking there. In 2024, the number of migrants who crossed the sea neared 50,000, and it was slightly lower last year. Many have lost their lives while crossing in raft-like boats, and even upon arrival they are known to live in harsh conditions. It is estimated that about 1,906 people died last year while attempting to cross the Atlantic to Europe.

In a speech that day, the pope said, “Europe that has grown accustomed to the reality of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic turning into nameless graves cannot claim to uphold human dignity.” He then urged proactive responses from Europe and the broader international community, such as safe and legal migration routes, sincere social integration of migrants, and efforts to shut down smuggling rings.

Addressing migrants, the pope said, “You are not mere numbers or documents, but people who have left families and homes, and people with dreams that no one has the right to despise.” He also emphasized, “Human dignity has no passport, and its value does not disappear by crossing a border.”

The pope said, “Monsters are lying in wait in these seas,” condemning “mafias that profit from despair, human traffickers who enslave women and children, and those whose indifference leaves the poor to be consumed by exploitation or oblivion.”

On the 12th, the last day of his visit to Spain, the pope is scheduled to travel to Tenerife to meet migrants at a refugee reception center.