Pope Francis deserves a lot of praise for asking all European countries that they must share the responsibility for taking in migrants and helping them integrate. According to him, he was able to touch their “wounded humanity” during his trip to Cyprus and Greece earlier this month. “I also was able to see how only a few European countries are bearing the greater part of consequences of the phenomena of migration in the Mediterranean area,” he was quoted by media as saying.

That Europe along with its Atlantic partner, the US, has played a key role in creating a slew of upheavals in North Africa and the Middle East is a fact. The policies that the US and a majority of countries in Europe pursued to protect and preserve their strategic interests have led to giving birth to a simmering cauldron. Russia, which is a very important actor in the Syrian theatre, too, should shoulder this responsibility for taking in migrants and helping them integrate.

Khalid Husain (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022