On June 16, 2026, responding to journalists outside his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo XIV described mass “remigration” – the policy of large-scale returns of migrants to their countries of origin – as not seeming to him “the most Christian response”, while stressing the need to examine individual cases and treat people with respect.
The Pope’s remarks came shortly after his visit to Spain’s Canary Islands, a major entry point for African migrants, amid renewed European debates over the EU Migration and Asylum Pact. “Many times we don’t recognise the reasons why these people had to leave their countries. Many reasons: violence, war, conflict,” he said. “So simply saying, ‘We’ll send them away, so we can wash our hands of the problem,’ doesn’t seem like the most Christian response to me. We really need to look at the cases, and above all, treat people with respect as individuals.”
