François must go on Sunday in the camp of the island, which welcomes more than two thousand asylum seekers. His last visit goes back to 2016, when Greek island was still the main gateway to migrants in Europe.
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In the capital of Lesbos, Mytilene, a choir sings with fervor a song in French: “Jesus, shepherd of all humanity, you have come to seek those who were lost.” Hidden behind a porch overlooking a trading artery The Roman Catholic Church Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption, built in 1843 by Franciscans, is full of November 27, like every Saturday afternoon. Among the crowd, a large majority of French-speaking asylum seekers who feel “lost”, “abandoned to [their] fate” in the Mavrovouni camp located 6 kilometers. All say impatiently waiting for the coming of the pope, scheduled Sunday.
The chapel, which has known for a few years a second life thanks to the refugees – because, in Lesbos, as in all Greece, nearly 90% of the population is orthodox – is a haven of peace in their daily punctuated, since The pandemic of Covid-19, long moments of confinement.
On Sunday, the Greek authorities do not leave the refugees out of the camp. The more than two thousand migrants can be found in the city once a week. “[Mass on Saturday,” It’s a way to escape from this prison, to find a community and pray together so that our situation is improving, “says Berthe N’Goyo, a Cameroonian. The young woman escaped a few months ago, with an illegal discharge of Greek coast guards to Turkey. For months, these practices, contrary to international law, which consist of preventing the filing of an asylum application on the Greek soil and to push the exiles towards Turkish territorial waters, have multiplied, according to NGOs and the high -Commissioning to refugees.
“Grand Cemetery”
In the evening, while the camp is surrounded by the sea, that its tent vibrates under the violent winds, Berthe can not sleep. “Worries, we have: the uncertainty of the future, living conditions, lack of money and food, the problems in the country”, Risk Enice Kiaku, a Congolese affirming having been a victim of sexual violence in The former Moria camp, left smoke in September 2020. “You have to hang up on something to not become crazy. Prayer helps me,” she adds. Sunday, Berthe and Enice absolutely want to meet the Pope Francis who will go to the camp to pronounce the Angelus, but will only speak with three refugees.
In April 2016, the Sovereign Pontiff returned from Lesbos with twelve Syrian asylum seekers. “What I saw today was crying (…). We must not forget that emigrants, before being numbers, are people, faces, names, stories,” he had then declared. In December 2019, he had also welcomed the Vatican thirty-three migrants, thanks to a humanitarian hallway.
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