MARSEILLE, France: Pope Francis on Saturday urged European governments to welcome migrants instead of viewing them as invaders, striding into in a hugely sensitive political debate again inflamed by mass arrivals on the second day of his visit to France’s Mediterranean port of Marseille.
The pontiff made the comments hours before he leads a mass in Marseille’s main stadium — usually the venue for rugby or football matches — in a gigantic event due to be attended by French President Emmanuel Macron.
“Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome,” Francis said in a speech closing a conference of bishops and young people from around the Mediterranean.
Migration is “a reality of our times, a process that involves three continents around the Mediterranean and that must be governed with wise foresight, including a European response,” the pontiff added.
Noting the risk to the lives of migrants if they are not taken to safety, he warned against turning “the Mediterranean, the mare nostrum, from the cradle of civilization into the mare mortuum, the graveyard of dignity.”
Francis’ 35-minute speech drew a standing ovation from his audience, but his position on migration was unlikely to please Macron and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who were both present and plan tougher measures to control arrivals.
The pope’s forceful interventions come as the migration debate has been stoked by mass arrivals on the Italian island of Lampedusa last week.
Speaking at a monument to people lost at sea on his arrival in Marseille on Friday, the pontiff had insisted that “people who are at risk of drowning when abandoned on the waves must be rescued.”
He thanked aid groups rescuing migrants in danger at sea, condemning efforts to prevent their work as “gestures of hate.”
Tens of thousands of people are expected to watch Francis as he travels through the streets of Marseille later Saturday before celebrating mass for almost 60,000 people in the city’s famed Velodrome stadium.
Thousands were already starting to pour into the iconic venue which only on Thursday had hosted France’s clash with Namibia in the Rugby World Cup.
Clutches of black- or white-robed priests and nuns were scattered through the crowds while volunteers tasked with distributing communion wafers during the service were taking up position.
Up to 100,000 are expected to line the Avenue du Prado for his “popemobile” tour and many roads are decked out with the white-and-yellow colors of the Vatican.
Francky Domingo, a Beninese man who heads a group of undocumented migrants in Marseille, said he hoped the pontiff’s visit would “give us back a little hope” and “calm the political tensions.”
Around 40 people have been killed in shootings in Marseille this year, and Macron has promised billions of euros to upgrade city infrastructure in a bid to stop the downward spiral.
Not everyone has welcomed the pope’s visit.
Some politicians on the left have criticized Macron’s decision to attend Saturday’s mass as an infringement of state secularism.
Others on the right have attacked Francis for “interfering” in domestic politics.
The pontiff did nothing Saturday to dodge such allegations, appearing to weigh in on two of Macron’s projects — assisted dying and inscribing the right to abortion in the constitution.
Old people risk being “pushed aside, under the false pretenses of a supposedly dignified and ‘sweet’ death that is more ‘salty’ than the waters of the sea,” Francis warned.
He also spoke of “unborn children, rejected in the name of a false right to progress, which is instead a retreat into the selfish needs of the individual.”
Francis’ messages may have less resonance given Catholicism’s long decline in France.
Fewer than a third of people still say they are Catholic, and only a fraction of those regularly attend mass.
The country’s religious heritage nevertheless still has enormous weight, with Macron showing off progress in restoring the fire-ravaged Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris to Britain’s King Charles III this week.
Pope urges Europe against treating migrants as invaders
https://arab.news/5tfye
Pope urges Europe against treating migrants as invaders
- “Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome,” Francis said
- Francis’ 35-minute speech drew a standing ovation from his audience, but his position on migration was unlikely to please Macron and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin
UK veterans are ‘ticking time bomb’ after Iraq war chemical exposure
- Fifteen former RAF personnel were deployed to the Qarmat Ali water plant in 2003, which was contaminated with sodium dichromate
- Veterans say they were not screened or protected, and are now living with serious health conditions
LONDON: Fifteen British servicemen who worked on a carcinogen-contaminated water treatment site during the Iraq war say they were not offered biological screening despite official guidance saying they should have been.
The former Royal Air Force members, who have suffered from ailments including cancer, tumors and nosebleeds, told Sky News they were offered no medical assistance or subsequent treatment after having been exposed to toxic sodium dichromate at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant in 2003.
The channel said it had seen a letter from the RAF’s medical authority stating that senior officers knew of the dangers posed by the substance.
Peter Lewis, 53, was one of 88 personnel deployed to guard the site, which was deemed vital for getting Iraq’s oil industry up and running. He told Sky: “I’ve had eight or nine operations to remove cancer.
“I’ve had so many lumps taken out of my neck, one on my face. This is something I’m literally fighting every year now. It’s constant.”
Qarmat Ali, the former troops say, was covered in ripped bags of bright orange sodium dichromate.
“We were never warned what the bags of chemicals were,” Jon Caunt, another former serviceman, said. “We were breathing this stuff in.”
His former comrade Tony Watters added: “I never thought about what it was. We were told the site is safe.”
Several months after deployment to the site, however, the servicemen were joined by two workers wearing protective gear who placed signs around it reading: “Warning. Chemical hazard. Full protective equipment and chemical respirator required. Sodium dichromate exposure.”
Watters said: “When you left the site, your uniform was contaminated, your webbing was contaminated.
“You went in your sleeping bag, and that was contaminated. And you were contaminating other people with it back at camp.”
Andy Tosh, who has led the group of veterans as they sought answers from the Ministry of Defence, said: “Even with the warning signs going up … they kept us there. They knowingly kept us exposed.”
The RAF gave some of the men a leaflet on their return to the UK, warning of the dangers of the substance, but not all were told.
The letter seen by Sky acknowledging the dangers posed to the veterans made a “strong” link to “increased risk of lung and nose cancer” as well as numerous other issues. It suggested personnel sent to Qarmat Ali should have their medical records altered to mention their exposure to sodium dichromate.
“Offer biological screening. This cannot be detailed until the numbers exposed are confirmed,” the letter also said.
An inquiry into US personnel deployed to Qarmat Ali found that 830 people were “unintentionally exposed” to sodium dichromate, giving them access to support from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. This came after the death of Lt. Col. James Gentry from cancer in 2009, which the US Army determined came “in line of duty for exposure to sodium dichromate.”
There has been no such inquiry by UK authorities despite British personnel being deployed at the site for longer than their American counterparts.
Thirteen of them have suffered from cancer and similar symptoms, including one who developed a brain tumor.
Jim Garth told Sky: “My skin cancer will never go away … It’s treatable, but when the treatment is finished, it comes back, so I’ve got that for life really.”
Lewis added: “I’m actually getting to the point now where I don’t care anymore … sooner or later, it’s going to do me.”
Caunt described his former colleagues’ conditions as a “ticking time bomb.”
He added: “We do not know what’s going to happen in the future."
The MoD insists medical screening was offered to personnel at the time, despite the men stating that it was not. In 2024, several met with Labour MPs about the issue. One, John Healey, who is now the UK defence secretary, said at the time the veterans should have “answers to their important questions.”
In a statement, the MoD said: “We take very seriously the concerns raised by veterans who were deployed to guard the Qarmat Ali Water Treatment Plant in 2003.
“As soon as we were alerted to the possible exposure of Sodium Dichromate, an environmental survey was conducted to evaluate typical exposure at Qarmat Ali. Results showed that the levels at the time were significantly below UK government guidance levels.”
A 2004 letter seen by Sky News suggested, however, that the MoD knew the levels of sodium dichromate were higher.
“Anyone who requires medical treatment can receive it through the Defence Medical Services and other appropriate services,” the MoD said.
“Veterans who believe they have suffered ill health due to service can apply for no-fault compensation under the War Pensions Scheme.”
Watters called on the government to hold an investigation into what happened at Qarmat Ali.
“We are the working class, we are ex-soldiers who have put our lives on the line and you’re turning a blind eye to us,” he said.
Garth added: “We felt let down at Qarmat Ali all those years ago, and we still feel let down now.”
