Focusing on migration and the humane treatment that migrants deserve, both those who embark on a cayuco on the African coasts risking their lives to cross the Atlantic and the Latin Americans who leave their countries and set out to seek a better life, is the main reason why the Canary Islands are one of the stops of the Pope on his first visit to Spain.
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Leo XIV has shown great sensitivity towards migrants and, although he recognizes the right of each State to manage its borders, he has harshly criticized the inhumane treatment given in many countries to those fleeing suffering. As the Pope himself said last April after his trip to Africa, “migrants are human beings and as such must receive respect and dignity and not be treated worse than animals.”
It is this humanitarian treatment advocated by Leo XIV that places the Canary Islands on his agenda, a region turned into a border territory, an example of solidarity and a land of welcome for many migrants. In 2025, the arrival of people on the Canary coasts via the Atlantic route, the deadliest in the world, dropped by almost 80%, but between 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, and 2024 the Canary Islands were immersed in a humanitarian emergency. In one year, nearly 50,000 people arrived. The images of the port of Arguineguín, the so-called dock of shame , where almost 3,000 people were crammed in August 2020 into a space with a capacity for 500 due to the difficulty of their transfer to the peninsula because of covid, will remain forever.
The pontiff has requested that there be few politicians at the meeting with emigrants
Precisely this dock will host one of the central events of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Gran Canaria on June 11 (on the 12th he will be in Tenerife, the city where he will close his trip to Spain). In Arguineguín, the Pontiff will meet with more than 2,000 people, almost all migrants who arrived at that dock in cayucos and also South Americans who have started a new life on the islands. Leo XIV will also hold a meeting with healthcare personnel and members of Maritime Rescue and Civil Protection, who contribute to the rescue and provide first aid to thousands of people after the harsh crossing. There will be hardly any politicians at this event by the express wish of the Pope. As the bishop of the diocese of the Canary Islands, José Mazuelos, indicates, it is an “apostolic visit and not political.”
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At that dock, Leo XIV will make a floral offering to the sea in tribute to the thousands of people who have died trying to reach the Canary coasts. Only in 2025, the NGO Caminando Fronteras estimates that nearly 2,000 people disappeared in the Atlantic, many of them children. The Pontiff will also attend the placement of a cross made from wood remains of cayucos and pateras.
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It was Leo XIV himself who decided to visit the Canary Islands at the request of the bishops of the islands. However, his visit is driven by his predecessor, Pope Francis, who already had a date to travel to the archipelago in the spring of 2025, although his death thwarted his plans.
Prevost takes up the glove from Francis, who could not fulfill his wish to travel to the archipelago after passing away in April 2025
Prevost has taken up the glove from Francis and fulfilled his wish. “I think about going to the Canary Islands because that is where the situation of migrants arriving from the sea is, and I would like to be close to the people of the Canary Islands,” the Argentine pope had said in statements to journalists in September 2024. A few months earlier, Bergoglio had acknowledged that “he was touched” by the photo of three Nigerians clinging to the blade of a tanker rudder that arrived at the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, after an eleven-day crossing, in a tiny space and with hardly any food. One more image of the suffering of those who have the least.
Canary Islands on alert: no classes and teleworking
The Pope’s visit to the Canary Islands will test the islands’ logistical capacity to host an unprecedented event. Therefore, the Canary Government has activated a pre-alert for a mass event, something unprecedented, which will move to alert on June 11 and 12. On those days, to avoid traffic collapse, classes will be suspended and teleworking is recommended. That lack of logistics in El Hierro has prevented the Pope from visiting this island despite it being the main destination of the cayucos. In 2025 alone, it received 60% of the migrants arriving on the islands. With barely 12,000 inhabitants, in 2024 it received 24,000 people. There is unrest on the island for being left out of the visit.
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