Pope leaves Barcelona for Canary Islands, highlights plight of migrants

June 12, 2026

Pope Leo XIV departed from Barcelona on June 11, the penultimate day of his apostolic journey to Spain, and arrived in the Canary Islands (video 1, video 2).

Shortly after his arrival at Gando Air Base on Gran Canaria, the Pontiff traveled to Arguineguín, where he met with members of organizations that serve migrants.

After hearing testimonies from a maritime rescuer, a Caritas volunteer, and a human trafficking victim, Pope Leo said that “human dignity demands legal and safe pathways, rescue and assistance, real cooperation against traffickers, effective protection for victims, serious processes of reception and integration, and policies that allow every person to live with dignity in their own land.”

“While there is a right to seek refuge when life is threatened, there is also the right not to have to migrate: the right to remain in one’s own home without hunger, war, persecution, violence, the land becoming uninhabitable, corruption stealing the bread from the poor or weapons destroying the future of children,” the Pope continued. “May the God who, in the evening of life, will judge us on our love, grant us the grace to recognize him today in the poor and in foreigners, and free us from viewing the suffering of others as if it did not concern us.”

Pope Leo also addressed words to the human trafficking victim who gave her testimony:

I hope that this message reaches you and the many other women who are victims of trafficking and exploitation. If others have put a price on your body, know that God has never ceased to recognize your inestimable worth. If others want to trap you in a painful past, God continues to make a promise for your future. If others treat you like an object, the Church wants to tell you today that you are a daughter, you are a sister, you are a blessing.

Your life does not belong to those who harmed you; your body does not belong to those who took advantage of you; your days do not belong to those who wanted to chain you to fear. Your life belongs to God, who has given you a dignity that cannot be taken from you. We want to walk with you until that truth feels stronger than the pain.

 

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Further information:

• Apostolic Journey to Spain: Meeting with Organizations working with Migrants (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 6/11/26)
• Apostolic Journey of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV to Spain (6 – 12 June 2026) – Departure from Barcelona and Welcome at the Gran Canaria-Gando Air Base (Holy See Press Office, 6/11/26)