Pope slams world’s indifference to migrants while visiting onetime ‘dock of shame’ in Canary Islands
He met migrants and aid workers and called for legal pathways and stronger action against smuggling as arrivals fell to about 3,000 in 2026, officials said.
- On Thursday, Pope Leo XIV visited the Port of Arguineguín in Gran Canaria, dubbed the "Dock of Shame," issuing an urgent appeal for compassion and insisting that "human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border."
- The Canary Islands serve as a vital gateway for migrants fleeing West Africa, receiving a record 46,843 irregular migrants in 2024, while more than 3,000 people died in 2025 attempting the perilous Atlantic crossing.
- Maritime Rescue captain Tito Villarmea, who has saved more than 20,000 people over 18 years, told the Pope that the toll weighs heavily: "It's a number that makes me sick and that you cannot forget."
- The Pope urged governments to create "legal and safe pathways" for immigration and combat criminal trafficking networks, insisting nations must share responsibility to prevent the Mediterranean and Atlantic from becoming "unmarked graves."
- Fulfilling a long-held wish of Pope Francis, who died in April 2025, the Pope will continue his program in Tenerife on Friday before returning to Rome, marking the final leg of his apostolic journey to Spain.
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In Gran Canaria, Pope Leo XIV meets with migrants in a port, demanding that Europe should not accept that the Mediterranean and the Atlantic become "peaceyards without gravestones".
During his visit to the Canary Islands, Pope Leo demanded safe and legal ways for migration.
Pope Leo bows to migrants' 'dignity' in Gran Canaria
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday continued his weeklong tour of Spain with a visit to a port in the Canary Islands that became the epicenter of a massive migration crisis that hit the islands in recent years. The pope visited the port of Arguineguin on Gran Canaria island, where he addressed migrants and lambasted the international community and leaders, especially in Europe, over the treatment of migrants. The visit was in line with the wider theme of …
Pope Leo hits beaches of popular European migrant entry point after criticizing global immigration policies
Pope Leo XIV landed in Spain's Canary Islands, an epicenter for incoming migrants, days after criticizing Europe's immigration policies in a speech to Spain's Parliament.
The Record
The Seattle TimesPope slams world’s indifference to migrants while visiting onetime ‘dock of shame’ in Canary Islands
By NICOLE WINFIELD, HELENA ALVES and RENATA BRITO ARGUINEGUÍN, Spain (AP) — Pope Leo XIV traveled to a once-notorious epicenter of the European migration debate on Thursday, challenging countries to uphold migrants’ rights while shaming those leaders, including Christians, who turn them away with indifference. Leo issued an impassioned plea to recognize the dignity of migrants from the port of Arguineguín, in the Canary Islands. In 2020, the por…
"The Church cannot remain silent before those who are abandoned" in the sea, appealed Leo XIV, who made it clear that "you cannot talk about dignity and let the seas be cemeteries".
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