Pope Francis tells children: 'Migrants are not dangerous but in danger'
"Migrants are not dangerous, but in danger," was the central message that Pope Francis put across to hundreds of children he met with at the Vatican on Sunday, May 29.
The children, who made a pledge to help the needy and gave the pope drawings illustrating dangers at sea, were composed of migrant minors and mostly Italian youngsters, according to a report by ABC. They also released dozens of white balloons inside the Vatican.
To illustrate his point, the pontiff showed them an orange life jacket given by a Spanish rescuer and worn by a refugee girl who died in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe.
"He brought me this life-jacket and, crying, he said: 'Father, I failed. There was a girl, in the waves, but I could not save her. All that is left is her life-jacket,'" Pope Francis told the kids as quoted by Reuters.
The Pope asked the children to close their eyes and think about the nameless girl who's now in heaven.
A UNHCR spokesman for Europe, William Spindler, talked to Al Jazeera and reported that the first incident was on Wednesday, May 25 when a boat carrying 600 refugees had capsized. It was followed by two more similar incidents in the succeeding days totaling to more than 700 refugees missing and believed to have drowned.
"There is a number of boats at the moment trying to make their way from Libya to Italy and several rescue operations are ongoing," Spindler told Al Jazeera.
Spindler believes that legal alternatives should be offered to these refugees who risk the dangerous journey for lack of a better choice.
"The number of minors who make the journey on their own and arrive in Europe is much higher than what we saw last year," said Giovanni De Benedetto, spokeswoman for Save the Children, as reported by Reuters.
According to De Benedetto, more and more children as young as nine or 10 are traveling alone or have lost their parents or family members while making the perilous journey.