Pope calls neglect of migrants 'shipwreck' on Lesbos visit

Pope Francis on Dec. 5 returned to the island of Lesbos, the migration flashpoint he first visited in 2016, calling the neglect of migrants the "shipwreck of civilisation".

The pope has long championed the cause of migrants and his visit comes a day after he delivered a stinging rebuke to Europe which he said was "torn by nationalist egoism".

"In Europe there are those who persist in treating the problem as a matter that does not concern them," the pope said as he spent some two hours at the Mavrovouni camp on Lesbos, where nearly 2,200 asylum-seekers live.

On the second day of his visit to Greece, he met dozens of child asylum-seekers and relatives standing behind metal barriers and stopped to embrace a boy called Mustafa.

"I am trying to help you," Francis told one group through his interpreter.

People later gathered in a tent to sing songs and psalms to the pontiff, who listened to them, visibly moved.

"His visit is a blessing," said Rosette Leo, a Congolese asylum-seeker at the site.

However, Menal Albilal, a Syrian mother with a two-month-old baby whose asylum claim was rejected after two years on the island, said refugees "want more than words, we need help".

"The conditions here are not good for a baby," she told AFP.

Pope Francis warned that the Mediterranean "is becoming a grim cemetery without tombstones" and that "after all this time, we see that little in the world has changed with regard to the issue of migration".

The root causes "should be confronted -- not the poor people who pay the consequences and are even used for political propaganda", he added.

According to the International Organization for Migration, 1,559 people have died or gone missing attempting the perilous...