Pope Leo rails against migrant deaths on visit to Spain’s ‘dock of shame’

Pontiff calls on leaders to treat migrants more humanely as he concludes week-long Spanish tour in Gran Canaria

The constant flow of people embarking in small, rickety boats to migrate abroad should force a reckoning as to why we have built a world where so many “must risk death to seek life”, Pope Leo has said as he warned: “We cannot grow accustomed to counting the dead.”

Thursday’s speech in the Canary Islands, on the final leg of the pontiff’s https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/05/divine-intervention-pope-leo-spain-tour-pedro-sanchez-boost">week-long tour of Spain, contained Leo’s most pointed comments to date on migration.