Pope denounces torture of migrants as Vatican confirms 12 will be taken to Italy

Pope Francis concluded his two-day visit to Cyprus with ceremony for migrants before travelling to Greece

Pope Francis prays with migrants at the Roman Catholic church of the Holy Cross near the United Nations buffer zone in the Cypriot city of Nicosia. AFP

Worshippers take pictures of Pope Francis. AFP

Pope Francis holds an ecumenical prayer with migrants. EPA

Pope Francis greets a woman holding a child after an ecumenical prayer with migrants. AFP

Pope Francis greets faithful at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, Cyprus, where he is on the second day of his trip to the island.

Thousands of faithful flocked to the football stadium in Nicosia to attend mass led by Pope Francis. EPA / ALESSANDRO DI MEO

Overseas workers were among the thousands of Catholics who attended a mass celebrated by Pope Francis at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday morning. EPA / KATIA CHRISTODOULOU

Worshippers wave flags at a football stadium in Nicosia, Cyprus, ahead of a mass celebrated by Pope Francis. The pontiff will head to Greece after he wraps up his visit to the island. EPA / KATIA CHRISTODOULOU

Pope Francis holds up the Eucharist during mass at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday morning, drawing thousands of Catholics. EPA / KATIA CHRISTODOULOU

Worshippers seated in front of a Lebanese flag at a public mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Nicosia, Cyprus. (Photo by Amir MAKAR / AFP)

Young girls waving flags at Pope Francis' open air mass in Nicosia, Cyprus. EPA / KATIA CHRISTODOULOU

Pope Francis leads a Holy Mass at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, Cyprus, as worshippers, many of whom are overseas workers, look on. EPA / KATIA CHRISTODOULOU

Pope Francis greets journalists onboard the papal plane before his five-day pastoral visit to Cyprus and Greece. The visit has been eagerly awaited by the estimated 25,000 Catholics in Cyprus. These include thousands of Maronites whose ancestors arrived from Syria and Lebanon, but most are overseas workers from the Philippines and South Asia, along with African migrants. AP

Pope Francis arrives at the airport in Larnaca, Cyprus. AP

Pope Francis will use his trip to push two of his priorities: religious dialogue and the plight of migrants. AFP

Pope Francis is the second Catholic pontiff to set foot on Cyprus, which has a Greek Orthodox majority. Benedict XVI visited in 2010. AFP

The visit by Pope Francis has been eagerly awaited by the estimated 25,000 Catholics in a country of about a million people. These include thousands of Maronites whose ancestors arrived from Syria and Lebanon, but most are overseas workers from the Philippines and South Asia, along with African migrants. AFP

Pope Francis's trip to Cyprus and Greece is drawing new attention to the plight of migrants on Europe's borders. AP

Pope Francis is greeted at Larnaca International Airport. Reuters

Pope Francis greets people upon his arrival in Larnaca. AFP

Children holding Lebanese flags wait for Pope Francis at Larnaca International Airport. Reuters

Pope Francis wrapped up his two-day visit to Cyprus on Friday in Nicosia with a mass for migrants that included a strongly worded condemnation of the “slavery” and “torture” endured by asylum-seekers in camps.

The Pope concluded his apostolic journey to the island with an ecumenical prayer service in which he denounced the “indifference” that the West shows incomers.

“It reminds us of the history of the last century, of the Nazis, of Stalin, and we wonder how this could have happened,” the pontiff said at the Parish Church of the Holy Cross in Europe's last divided capital.

During the mass, four migrants from different parts of the world shared stories of their journeys and the suffering they had experienced. After listening to them, Pope Francis said: “We better understand the prophetic power of the word of God, who tells us … ‘You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God’.”

He went on to criticise the “developed civilisations of the West” who refuse to accept migrants or send them back to countries where they would be “confined, tortured and enslaved”, a reference to the recent migrant crisis in Europe in which hundreds of people were pushed back between the borders of Poland and Belarus.

The Vatican said that at least 12 migrants would be taken from the Mediterranean island to Italy, AP reported. The Pope, however, did not confirm the transfer himself during his ceremony.

The Rome-based Sant’Egidio Community has arranged to bring the dozen asylum-seekers from Cyprus to Italy in the coming weeks. The Cypriot Interior Ministry had previously thanked Pope Francis and Holy See for plans to relocate 50 people, saying it was a recognition of Cyprus's inability to continue to absorb an influx of migrants.

The ministry said that two Cameroonian migrants who have been stranded in the UN-manned buffer zone that runs along the divided island for six months would be among those relocated to Italy.

In 2016, Pope Francis famously brought a dozen Syrian refugees home with him aboard the papal plane on his return from a visit to the island of Lesbos in Greece. The Pope will continue on to Greece on Saturday where he will stay for a further two days.

It is not clear whether more than 12 people would be transferred to Italy – the Vatican did not immediately respond when asked about the discrepancy in numbers, although AP reported that Cyprus's Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said arrangements had been made to transfer 50 in total.

Watch - Pope criticises 'disease' of ignoring migrants

The small island nation is home to the largest concentration of asylum-seekers per capita among the EU countries and has repeatedly called for international assistance in helping it cope with a steady influx of people seeking asylum. It recently asked the European Commission to allow it to stop processing asylum claims after an almost 40 per cent increase in migrant arrivals in the first 10 months of 2021 compared with all of last year.

During the final event in Cyprus, Pope Francis referred to the problems the country was facing and recognised that governments are unable to take in everyone and that “we have to understand the limits”.

Nevertheless, he made it clear that countries had a moral obligation to accept those who are fleeing war, hatred and oppression.

“He who comes asking for freedom, bread, help, fraternity and joy, who is fleeing hatred, finds himself in front of a hatred which is called barbed wire,” the Pope said.

“May the Lord awaken the conscience of all of us in front of all these things. We cannot be silent and look away at this culture of indifference.”