We are all migrants, Pope says as he takes 12 refugees to Vatican

 ‘Worst humanitarian disaster’

The refugee influx has sparked fierce disagreements between EU members and brought the bloc’s system of open borders to the brink of collapse.

Lesbos has become the focus of criticism of the EU’s deal with Turkey to take back migrants who travel to the Greek islands, in return for billions in EU cash.

All new arrivals on the island are being held at Moria while waiting to be processed to determine whether they can legitimately claim asylum or should be returned as “economic migrants”. Rights groups have accused Greece of turning the centre into a detention camp.

Migrant flows to Greece have drastically fallen since the agreement took effect. The number of deaths in the perilous crossing have also been cut — though not entirely eliminated.

Another 125 arrived through the Aegean in the last 24 hours, including 46 on Lesbos, the Greek government said on Saturday.

The refugee families to be taken in by the Vatican, which include six children, will be initially cared for by the community of Sant’Egidio in Rome, the Holy See said.

They originally lived in Damascus and Deir Azzor, an area currently occupied by jihadists, and have lost their homes to bombings, it said.

Francis had framed his visit as an exercise to raise awareness of the “worst humanitarian disaster since the Second World War”.

The former Jesuit priest has repeatedly said he does not accept the EU’s distinction between those fleeing conflicts, like the war in Syria, and those fleeing poverty and starvation created by global economic inequalities.

That line has been backed by Bartholomew, the Turkey-based leader of the world’s roughly 250 million Orthodox Christians, who said Europe as a whole must display the same generosity as the people of Lesbos.

On a 2013 visit to Lampedusa, the Italian island which has witnessed several deadly sinkings of migrant boats off its shores, the pope made one of the defining speeches of his papacy, denouncing the “globalisation of indifference” which has allowed thousands to perish at sea.

Over one million people crossed clandestinely from Turkey to Greece in 2015 and some 150,000 have made the trip since the start of this year.