Pope Francis and Orthodox leaders visit migrants on Lesbos DW by B.Reighart

The leader of the world's estimated 2 billion Catholics arrived on Lesbos Saturday, alongside the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and the head of the Orthodox Church of Greece, Athens Archbishop Ieronymos II. They greeted about 250 refugees who are currently on the Greek island. Afterwards they are expected to have lunch with some of them, and throw floral wreaths in to the sea while praying for those who died on the journey to the island.  The Pope told the refugees at Moira camp "you are not alone."

Later in their visit, the three religious leaders signed a joint declaration calling for the protection of human lives to be made a priority and for the international community to extend temporary asylum to those in need.

Dozens of refugees who didn't meet the pope gathered holding makeshift banners with slogans such as "Pope you are our hope," ''please save Yazidi people," ''we are also human," and "Welcome Pope Francis."

The pope has reportedly offered to take 10 refugees back to Italy with him when he departs the Greek island, Greek state television ERT reported, adding it appears eight Syrians and two Afghans will be offered passage. The inclusion of the latter would be a symbolic move at a time when the EU has stopped automatically considering Afghans as refugees and does not include them among the nationalities whose asylum applications are approved.

 The Pope's visit was to "visit refugees and reject EU asylum policy."

Front line of migration crisis

The visit by Pope Francis coincides with the implementation of a controversial deal between the European Union and Turkey aimed at stopping people attempting to reach Europe. Under the deal, people who arrive in Greece in smugglers' boats would be detained and deported back to Turkey unless their applications for asylum in Greece were successful.

The Pope was to visit a Greek "hotspot" - a migrant processing center where conditions have been criticized by rights groups. Before setting off for Greece, he made this statement :

"Refugees are not numbers, they are people who have faces, names, stories and need to be treated as such."