Plight of migrants at heart of talks between Pope, Director of IOM

(Vatican Radio) The deaths of hundreds of migrants in shipwrecks off the Italian island of Lampedusa in the last two weeks were a key issue at the heart of Pope Francis’ meeting Monday with the Director General of the International Organization for Migration, William Lacy Swing. In an interview following his meeting with the Pope in the Vatican, Ambassador Swing told Tracey McClure that he thanked Pope Francis for his “strong and continued engagement on behalf of migrants and other vulnerable people… I thanked him in particular, for being the first pope to visit Lampedusa and also to have done it within a very short time after his pontificate began.”

Ambassador Swing said he also informed the Pope that he himself would be visiting the southern Italian island on Wednesday “to try to see for myself the situation and make some assessments as to what we might be able to do with our other partners in supporting, both helping the migrants and helping the officials there to manage the situation humanely and effectively.”

On his pastoral visit to Lampedusa this past summer, Pope Francis spoke of the “globalization of indifference” surrounding the plight of irregular migrants.

“I certainly share his view. He was very critical of all of us in the international community and I confessed that we haven’t done enough. For whatever reason…much of the industrialized world has become much more suspicious of migratory movements when in fact, so many of these people are actually needed in order for skills to be available and jobs to be filled and economies to flourish. So, I said to him that I thought his criticism was well placed and would be useful to all of us as we look at what we’re doing. “

European leaders are investigating measures including increasing boat patrols of the Union’s maritime borders, creating safe passage corridors, and patrolling ports of origin.

Ambassador Swing says of such measures: “I think the top priority now has to be saving life. I think (of the) life-saving measures that can be taken. And then others of course will be: how do we support these migrants once they come ashore? But getting them on shore is important. There needs to be much more dialogue of course between countries of origin, transit and destination – I think all of that is foreseen in these measures. So the EU has been one of our most important partners over many years. We’ll be starting a conversation now to see what we can do to support that.”

Listen to Tracey McClure’s extended interview with Ambassador Swing: