Lesbos, Greece (Associated Press)-Pope Francis returned to Lesbos, Greece on Sunday to provide comfort to immigrants in refugee camps, and criticized what he called Europe’s indifference and selfishness, and "punished those on the margins to death." .

"Please, let us stop this civilized shipwreck!" Francis said. At the Mavrovoni camp, a pile of white United Nations containers are located by the sea, lined with barbed wire and dried clothes hanging in the air.

On Sunday, an unmasked Francis spent time walking through the camp, patting the heads of children and babies and posing for selfies. After African women sang the welcome song, he gave a thumbs up.

This is Francis's second trip to Lesbos in five years. He regrets that almost nothing has changed since 2016, when Lesbos was at the center of a wave of large-scale immigration in Europe, and Francis brought 12 Syrian Muslim refugees from the island to his pope plane.

This concrete gesture of solidarity brings hope to the current residents of Lesbos refugee camp, some of whom have given birth to children here while waiting for asylum applications to be processed. But there was no pope airlift on Sunday, and Francis returned to the Vatican on Monday.

“The Pope’s coming here is a kind of grace for us. As refugees, we have a lot of problems here, a lot of suffering,” said Enice Kiaku from Congo, whose 2-year-old son was born on Lesbos. . But like Xiao Guilan, she did not have an identity document and was stuck.

"The arrival of the Pope makes us very happy, because we hope that the Pope can take us there, because we are suffering here," Jiajiu said, waiting for the arrival of the Pope in the tent.

The theme of Francis' five-day trip to Cyprus and Greece was immigration and Francis called on European countries to show greater solidarity with those in need. He insisted on Sunday that Europe must stop building walls, stop inciting fear, and shut out “those who are more in need who knock on our door”.

In the first leg of Francis's trip to Cyprus, the Vatican announced that 12 migrants who had crossed the border from the separated northern Turkish Cypriots would move to Italy in the coming weeks. Cypriot officials stated that the island nations of the European Union could not accept more immigrants and said they would eventually send a total of 50 people.

"I ask every man and woman, all of us, to overcome the paralysis of fear, the indifference of killing people, the cynical disregard of coldly condemning the marginal to death!" Francis said Sunday. "Let us stop ignoring reality, stop constantly shirking responsibility, stop passing the immigration problem onto others, as if it has nothing to do with anyone, but a meaningless burden borne by others!"

He condemned that the "cradle of many civilizations" the Mediterranean had become a huge cemetery, where smuggling ships crowded with desperate people often sank.

"Let us not let our ocean (mare nostrum) become a desolate sea of ​​death (mare mortuum)," he said.

Sitting in a waterside tent in front of him are Greek President Katerina Sacraropoulou, European Commission Vice-President Margaritas Cinas, and refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Congo.

In his address to the Pope, Sakellaropoulou firmly defended Greece's response to immigration needs and thanked Francis for his support for his attendance.

"This is a strong message of hope and responsibility from Lesbos to the international community," she said.

This camp has only recently replaced tents with containers. It is actually a temporary shelter, replacing another camp that was burned down last year. It was built before a "closed control facility" was built on the island, and it was basically a detention camp. These new camps funded by the European Union but in conflict with human rights groups are already operating on the other three Greek islands of Samos, Leros and Kos.

Francis listened intently to the speech of Christian Tango Mukaya, a resident of the refugee camp and father of three, thanking him for his solidarity and calling for the entry of refugees in Europe. Mukaya lost his wife and their third child during the journey, and now hopes that his popularity before the Pope will allow them to reunite.

"We always hope that one day we can get together again," he told the Associated Press on the eve of Francis's arrival.

"We hope that the arrival of the Pope will bring about change," he said. "We want a better life. We beg the Pope to help us and speak to Europe on our behalf."

In 2015 and 2016, more than 1 million people crossed the border from Turkey into Greece. Many of them fled the war in Iraq and Syria. Lesbos was the busiest crossing point in Greece. The wave of immigration may have subsided on Lesbos, but it has not stopped. Anti-immigration sentiment in Greece and other regions will only become stronger in the following years. The latest flashpoint occurred on the Polish border between the EU and Belarus. superior.

Greece recently built a steel wall along a section of the Greek-Turkish land border and intercepted ships carrying migrants from the Turkish side. It denies allegations of summary deportation of immigrants who have arrived in Greek territory, but human rights groups say that such obstructions have occurred multiple times.

Amnesty International stated that the European Union-funded new internment camps on Greek islands violated Athens’ commitment to provide international protection to those in need.

“According to international law and EU law, asylum seekers should only be detained as a last resort,” Amnesty International said. "As we fear, the Greek authorities hide behind the legal vague concept of the so-called closed control center in order to illegally deprive asylum seekers of their freedom."

Human rights organizations demanded that Greece "emergencyly withdraw this decision and lift restrictions."

Greek Immigration Minister Notis Mitarachi defended Greece’s response on Sunday, saying it “selflessly” responded to the 2015 crisis and continued to provide protection for asylum seekers. He asked the EU to take more measures to help front-line countries such as Greece.