Pope Leo XIV visits Canary Islands, condemns migrant deaths at sea in tribute to drowning victims

Pope Leo XIV visits Spain's Canary Islands, condemning the "indifference" that allows the Atlantic to become a graveyard for migrants. In a tribute at Gran Canaria's "dock of shame," he cast a wreath into the sea for the nearly 1,200 who died on the route last year. The Pope's call for humane, legal pathways for migrants contrasts with a new, stricter EU border pact and highlights Spain's own policy to regularize hundreds of thousands of undocumented people.

Pope Leo XIV Canary visit

• ▪Pope Leo XIV visited the Canary Islands on June 11, 2026, as the final part of a week-long tour of Spain
• ▪The Pope's visit fulfilled a wish of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who died in April 2025 before he could make a planned trip to the islands
• ▪Pope Leo XIV told migrants they are "not numbers or files, you are people" and that he "bowed" before their dignity
• ▪The Pope held a ceremony at the port of Arguineguín on Gran Canaria, a site known as the "dock of shame" since a 2020 migrant surge
• ▪During the ceremony, Pope Leo XIV cast a wreath of flowers into the sea as a tribute to migrants who have died on the crossing

Atlantic migrant crossing deaths

• ▪In a speech, Pope Leo XIV warned that Europe cannot grow accustomed to the Mediterranean and Atlantic becoming "graveyards without headstones."
• ▪A record of more than 46,000 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands in 2024
• ▪The International Organization for Migration reported nearly 1,200 people died or went missing on the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands last year
• ▪The number of migrant arrivals by sea to Spain has fallen significantly in the current year, partly due to increased EU-funded naval patrols
• ▪The Pope called for the creation of "legal and safe pathways" for immigration to prevent deaths at sea

Migrant employment programs

• ▪Dozens of companies, including hotel chains and the Domingo Alonso Group car firm, have joined a scheme to hire young migrants who have left state care
• ▪A Canary Islands official stated there is a labor shortage of workers for hotels, buses, and construction

Spain regularization policy

• ▪The regularization policy allows migrants who arrived before last December to apply for residence and work permits
• ▪Spain's conservative Popular Party criticized the policy as "irresponsible," while the far-right Vox party called it an "invasion."
• ▪The Spanish government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, is in the process of regularizing the status of hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants

EU border enforcement pact

• ▪A new EU-wide pact aims to tighten borders and make it easier to detain and deport migrants arriving by sea
• ▪Critics of the new EU pact say it mimics the US administration's ICE system