Pope Francis insists Europe doesn't have a migrant emergency and challenges countries to open ports

Pope Francis insists Europe doesn’t have a migrant emergency and challenges countries to open ports

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Pope Francis is welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron as arrives at the final session of the “Rencontres Mediterraneennes” meeting at the Palais du Pharo, in Marseille, France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

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French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Pope Francis before the final session of the “Rencontres Mediterraneennes” meeting at the Palais du Pharo, in Marseille, southern France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Pope Francis blasted the “fanaticism of indifference” that greets migrants seeking a better life in Europe, as he arrived Friday in the Mediterranean port of Marseille amid a new influx of would-be refugees from Africa that has sparked a backlash from some of Europe’s increasingly anti-migrant leaders. (Sebastien Nogier, Pool via AP)

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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives at the “Velodrome Stadium”, in Marseille, France, to celebrate mass, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

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People wait for the arrival of Pope Francis at the “Velodrome Stadium”, in Marseille, France, to celebrate mass, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

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French President Emmanuel Macron arrives with Pope Francis at the final session of the “Rencontres Mediterraneennes” meeting at the Palais du Pharo, in Marseille, southern France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (Sebastien Nogier, Pool via AP)

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French President Emmanuel Macron and Pope Francis meet at the Palais du Pharo, in Marseille, southern France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Pope Francis blasted the “fanaticism of indifference” that greets migrants seeking a better life in Europe, as he arrived Friday in the Mediterranean port of Marseille amid a new influx of would-be refugees from Africa that has sparked a backlash from some of Europe’s increasingly anti-migrant leaders. (Sebastien Nogier, Pool via AP)

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Pope Francis meets French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palais du Pharo, in Marseille, France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (Andreas Solaro/AFP via AP, Pool)

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Pope Francis waits for the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron for a bilateral meeting at the Palais du Pharo, in Marseille, France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (Andreas Solaro/AFP via AP, Pool)

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French President Emmanuel Macron, center, and his wife Brigitte, at his left, listen to Pope Francis as he delivers his speechs at the final session of the “Rencontres Mediterraneennes” meeting at the Palais du Pharo, in Marseille, France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

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Pope Francis arrives at the final session of the “Rencontres Mediterraneennes” meeting at the Palais du Pharo, in Marseille, France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

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Pope Francis delivers his speech during the final session of the “Rencontres Mediterraneennes” meeting at the Palais du Pharo, in Marseille, France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

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Nuns applaud as Pope Francis arrives for a private meeting with people experiencing economic hardship, at the House of the Missionaries of Charity, in Marseille, France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (Yara Nardi/Reuters via AP, Pool)

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Pope Francis arrives for a private meeting with people experiencing economic hardship, at the House of the Missionaries of Charity, in Marseille, France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (Yara Nardi/Reuters via AP, Pool)

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Pope Francis attends the final session of the “Rencontres Mediterraneennes” meeting at the Palais du Pharo, in Marseille, France, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

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Pope Francis arrives at the “Velodrome Stadium”, in Marseille, France, to celebrate mass, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

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Priests take photos as they wait for the arrival of Pope Francis at the “Velodrome Stadium”, in Marseille, France, to celebrate mass, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

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A giant image of Pope Francis is lifted as Pope Francis arrives at the “Velodrome Stadium”, in Marseille, France, to celebrate mass, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

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Priests walk through the crowd as they arrive at the “Velodrome Stadium”, in Marseille, France, where Pope Francis will celebrate mass, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. Francis, during a two-day visit, will join Catholic bishops from the Mediterranean region on discussions that will largely focus on migration. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

By NICOLE WINFIELD, SYLVIE CORBET and TRISHA THOMAS

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Pope Francis challenged French President Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders to open their ports to people fleeing hardship and poverty, insisting Saturday that the continent isn’t facing a migration “emergency” but rather a long-term reality that governments must deal with humanely.

For a second straight day in the French port city of Marseille, Francis took aim at European countries that have used “alarmist propaganda” to justify closing their doors to migrants, and tried to shame them into responding with charity instead. He called for migrants to have legal pathways to citizenship, and for the Mediterranean Sea that so many cross to reach Europe to be a beacon of hope, not a graveyard of desperation.

The Mediterranean, Francis told Macron and a gathering of regional bishops, “cries out for justice, with its shores that on the one hand exude affluence, consumerism and waste, while on the other there is poverty and instability.”

The pope’s visit to the city in southern France, which drew an estimated 150,000 well-wishers Saturday, comes as Italy’s far right-led government has reacted to a new wave of arriving migrants by threatening to organize a naval blockade of Tunisia and to step up repatriations. The French government, for its part, has beefed up patrols on its southern border to stop migrants in Italy from crossing over.

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After the bishops’ meeting ended, Macron and Francis held a private, half-hour meeting. They spoke about migration issues and a series of other topics, the French presidency said, adding that both leaders share a “joint will” to bring human solutions to the situation.

France is a “host country” to migrants — especially to asylum seekers — and is supporting European solidarity policies, including through financing and fighting human trafficking, the French presidency said. The Vatican provided no readout of the meeting.

Macron’s centrist government has taken a harder line on migration and security issues after coming under criticism from French conservatives and the far right. With elections for the European Union’s parliament set for next year, Macron is pushing for the EU to strengthen its external borders and to be more efficient in deporting individuals who are denied entry.

Macron greeted Francis on a wind-swept promenade overlooking Marseille’s old port, and helped him walk into the Palais du Pharo for the Mediterranean bishops meeting. With his wife by his side, the French leader listened as a young Italian volunteer working in Greece and the bishop of Tirana, Albania, who fled to Italy during Albania’s communist rule, spoke of the welcomes they received in foreign countries.

“May we let ourselves be moved by the stories of so many of our unfortunate brothers and sisters who have the right both to emigrate and not to emigrate, and not become closed in indifference,” Francis said. “In the face of the terrible scourge of the exploitation of human beings, the solution is not to reject but to ensure, according to the possibilities of each, an ample number of legal and regular entrances.”

Francis’ two-day trip was scheduled months ago, but it is taking place as mass migration to Europe is once again making headlines. Nearly 7,000 migrants who boarded smugglers boats in Tunisia came ashore on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa within a day last week, briefly outnumbering the resident population.

Nevertheless, Francis said talk of a migration “emergency” only fuels “alarmist propaganda” and stokes peoples’ fears.

“Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome, for life” he said. “As for the emergency, the phenomenon of migration is not so much a short-term urgency, always good for fueling alarmist propaganda, but a reality of our times.”

In addition to Macron, the pope’s audience on Saturday included European Commission Vice President Margarítis Schinás, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who has said France would not take in new migrants from Lampedusa.

The French president and first lady Brigitte Macron later attended Francis’ final Mass at the Marseille Velodrome that drew an estimated 50,000 people and featured a giant banner of the pope hoisted up in the stands. The Vatican, citing local organizers, said 100,000 more lined Marseilles’ central Avenue du Prado to cheer as his popemobile passed by.

History’s first Latin American pope has made the plight of migrants a priority of his 10-year pontificate. For his first trip as pope, he traveled to Lampedusa to honor migrants who had drowned while attempting to cross the sea.

In the years since, he has celebrated Mass on the U.S.-Mexico border, met with Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees and, in a visible display of his commitment, brought home 12 Syrian Muslims on his plane after visiting a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece.

Migrants and their advocates living in Marseille, which has a long tradition of multicultural hospitality, said Francis’ call for charity and paths to citizenship gave them hope that at least someone in Europe was sympathetic to their plight.

“It is a very beautiful opportunity for us,” said Francky Domingo, who is part of a Marseille-based association representing migrants seeking official identification documents. “We really want the pope to be our spokesperson to the politicians because the European policy on migration is very, very repressive for us migrants.”

Stephanie Tomasini, a 48-year-old Marseille resident who attended the mass, said the pope sent an important message. “We must be able to ... extend a hand and share, all of us should do that. Today, we’re not faced with difficulties, but we could be tomorrow, and we will want someone to open the doors for us,” she said.

Many faithful came from across French regions to see the pope, who last visited the country almost a decade ago. Catherine Etienne, from Brest in western France, watched Francis’ parade with joy. “We are really happy to have seen the Pope. We’re very moved,” she said.

In his remarks, Francis also repeated his opposition to euthanasia, which he has long decried as a symptom of a “throwaway culture” which treats the elderly and infirm as dispensable. Listing euthanasia as a “social evil,” he criticized supporters of assisted suicide as providing “false pretenses of a supposedly dignified and ‘sweet’ death that is more ‘salty’ than the waters of the sea.”

The issue is current in France, where Macron is expected in the coming weeks to unveil a bill that would legalize end-of-life options in France. French media reported that he delayed the presentation of the measure until after the pope’s visit to keep the sensitive topic from interfering.

No details of the government’s proposal have been released, but several options are under consideration, including legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia for adult patients with incurable conditions under strict conditions that guarantee their free and informed consent.

The French presidency said Francis and Macron discussed the issue during their bilateral meeting but didn’t enter into the details.

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Associated Press writers Nicolas Garriga, Helena Alves and Masha Macpherson contributed to the story.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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Follow AP’s coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration