Pope tells traffickers of migrants in the Canary Islands: Stop, repent or face God’s wrath

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Pope tells traffickers of migrants in the Canary Islands: Stop, repent or face God’s wrath

[html]Pope Leo XIV meets migrants at the 'Las Raices' center, in San Cristobal de la Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

2026-06-12T11:07:24Z

                                       

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LA LAGUNA, Spain (AP) —         data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/hub/pope-leo-xiv">Pope Leo XIV warned people smugglers on Friday that they will face God’s wrath for exploiting the desperation of migrants, demanding they stop and repent during his final day in this epicenter of the African migration route to Europe.

“Break those chains and free those you hold in bondage,” Leo said in a message to human traffickers that he delivered during a meeting with humanitarian aid organizations in the Canary Islands that help migrants.

Leo wrapped up his         data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/spain-pope-leo-sagrada-familia-barcelona-gaudi-a1b69601917ab4709959c4628a4995b6">weeklong trip to Spain in the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago closer to Africa than the Iberian Peninsula and a key point of entry for migrants who make the perilous Atlantic crossing from West Africa.

   
       
   

He is fulfilling a wish of Pope Francis to visit the islands to commemorate the thousands of lives lost at sea. He is also drawing attention to the Catholic Church’s biblically-mandated mantra to “welcome the stranger” amid anti-migrant sentiment in Europe and the Trump administration’s mass deportation program in his native United States.

           
               
                   

   

       
   


       

       
     
   

   
   
       

   

   
       

   

   
       

   

   
       

   

   
       

   

   
       

   
       
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Pope Leo XIV meets a migrant at the ‘Las Raices’ center, in San Cristobal de la Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

               
           
       
       
   

   
   
   


               
           
       

During an encounter with aid groups in Tenerife, Leo implored receiving communities to integrate people fleeing war, poverty and climate change and spare them from the “silent shipwreck” of abandonment when they are left on the streets with nothing after surviving perilous crossings.

“A human conscience, and even more so a Christian conscience, cannot remain indifferent in the face of these graveyards of the sea, to the victims of shipwrecks and the lack of aid,” Leo said. “Every life lost on these routes is a failure for the human family.”

   
       




   

A deadly passage and a warning to traffickers

The Canary Islands have long been a         data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/north-africa-atlantic-ocean-canary-islands-africa-spain-75cb424d8cc846ef185939f1843ea789">stepping stone for migrants trying to reach Europe from West Africa and Morocco.

While people smugglers and human traffickers operate the Atlantic route, there are also many self-organized boats of migrants, including many former fishermen from Senegal who were left without income due to overfishing in recent years.

   
       
           
               
                   
   
   


   

 

 
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Migrant arrivals in the Canary Islands peaked in 2024 at nearly 47,000. They have fallen dramatically, with over 3,000 people landing there in the first five months of 2026.

           
               
                   

   

       
   


       

       
     
   

   
   
       

   

   
       

   

   
       

   

   
       

   

   
       

   

   
       

   
       
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Migrants attend a meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the ‘Las Raices’ center, in San Cristobal de la Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)