Pope Francis calls for temporary visas for refugees

Pope Francis has called for “welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating migrants and refugees” and granting “special temporary visas” to people fleeing conflicts, Anadolu reported on Monday.

He rejected the expulsion of the migrants who enter countries without the necessary legal entry permits.

Pope Francis said: “Collective and arbitrary expulsions of migrants and refugees are not suitable solutions, particularly when people are returned to countries which cannot guarantee respect for human dignity and fundamental rights.”

He added: “Considering the current situation welcoming means, above all, offering broader options for migrants and refugees to enter destination countries safely and legally.”

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The Pope called for the host countries to educate migrants and refugees about their rights and obligations abroad, stop detention of underage migrants, provide migrants, refugees and asylum seekers with work permits and guarantee the right of all migrants and refugees to practice their faith.

The Pope’s message came amidst suffering inflicted on the refugees in some of the European countries, mainly by extremist right-wing groups.

On 15 August the German foreign ministry said that it registered 642 cases of aggression against refugees during the first half of this year in the country. In addition, the refugee camps were subject to 153 attacks between January and June of the same year.

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In April the EU Commission announced, in its 11th report about the status of the refugees in Europe, a plan to divide the refugees among the EU member states. The plan did not succeed.

The report noted that EU member states decided to resettle 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece until September 2017. However, until now, 5,000 refugees had been resettled from those in Italy and 11,339 from Greece.