Pope Francis confirmed this Friday that considering traveling to the Canary Islands for the migration crisis facing the islands and showed his “closeness to the leaders and the people” during the press conference on board the plane returning from his tour of Asia and Oceania.
“I think about it a little, going to the Canary Islands because there is the situation of migrants arriving from the sea and I would like to be close to the leaders and the people of the Canary Islands,” the Pope said when asked about a possible visit to the islands, for example as a stopover during a hypothetical trip to Argentina.
One of the options considered was that the visit to the Canary Islands would be a stop on his trip to his country, since the 87-year-old pontiff himself confirmed that he wanted to go to Argentina, although today he has gained more strength. that if he went to the archipelago, it would be a unique trip. The trip to Argentina “is something that is not decided,” Francisco said, before adding: “I would like to go there. It is my city, but it is not decided, there are several things to sort out first,” thus removing the possibility of the trip.
A total of 6,267 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands during the months of July and August and with these numbers of arrivals this summer, it is a record since statistics have been available and it is significantly different from the number of the last five years of the same period. Until September, 25,524 people arrived on the shores of the Canaries, which represents an increase of 123% compared to the same period of 2023.
The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Luis Argüello, recently stressed that if Pope Francis finally goes to Spain, “by intuition”, the chosen place could be the Canary Islands, to learn about the situation of the hundreds of immigrants who arrive each month in Spain. its shores from Africa.
The possibility of Francis traveling to the Canary Islands has been on the table since January 22, when the Canary Islands president, Fernando Clavijo, confirmed after a meeting at the Vatican that the Pope had told him that “he would think about it” and showed that he was aware of the humanitarian emergency that is being experienced on the Atlantic Route.
During his pontificate, Pope Francis has shown his attention to the migration crisis and especially in the flows towards Europe with his visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa, the first of the pontificate, and he also went twice to the Greek island of Lesbos. With a possible visit to the Canary Islands, Francisco would become the first pontiff to set foot on the archipelago, and it would also be his first trip to Spain.
