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During a visit to Hungary, Pope Francis met with refugees in Budapest and affirmed the Church’s response to people who transited the country after being forcibly displaced by war in Ukraine. He urged political leaders to remain true to the country’s Christian roots by embracing a policy of welcome.

In a 28 April statement, U.S. Bishops welcomed the U.S. Administration’s plan to expand regular pathways for refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean when the Title 42 policy ends in mid-May but urged against a continued “reliance on expedited removal” and “severe restrictions on asylum.”

The lead U.S. Bishop for migration has urged officials to look beyond the border at the factors driving people to migrate, which nearly always are related to violence and instability. “It doesn’t fix things to control the border … we need to think about why [immigrants] are coming,” Bishop Mark Seitz said.

South African Bishops condemned hostility to migrants and a new xenophobic movement in the country during the recent conference “Migration in Africa” co-organized by the Episcopal migrant commission. They called on governments to protect people on the move and highlighted resources for parishes.

People on the move in Tunisia face increasing anti-migrant sentiment and are being pushed into dangerous journeys due to a harsh government crackdown on irregular migration, said Archbishop Ilario Antoniazzi, head of the Church in the country. “More and more are risking death aboard unsafe boats.”

Bishops in Burkina Faso have deplored the loss of life and forced displacement as people flee renewed violence by extremist groups in the northern part of the country. “Psychosocial traumas and the trivialization of human life are among other misfortunes resulting from terrorist attacks,” they said.

Pope Francis has called for Indigenous and displaced ethnic groups to be given a voice in policymaking. “There will be no peace if, in the representative political systems, there is no real integration of the excluded peoples,” the Holy Father said at a recent Vatican workshop on neocolonialism.

Mexican bishops expressed sorrow over the deaths of migrants in a fire at a migration station near the U.S. border. They said the deaths were “not isolated cases” but closely related to tragedies at other residences for migrants that “operate as prisons and as punishment for irregular migration.”

Guatemalan Bishops condemned comments by the Mexican president about a fire at a detention center that killed at least 38 migrants. “Enough with the euphemisms. Immigration stations are not shelters but detention centers where the human rights of people in forced mobility are violated,” they said.

Policy responses to migration should focus on saving lives and promoting integration, the council of Italian Bishops has stressed. The Episcopal body called for “far-sighted European and national policies” that offer people fleeing poverty and violence “safe pathways that avoid dangerous sea voyages.”

Bishops in Scotland spoke out against the UK bill targeting irregular migration, saying it would cause forceable removal of vulnerable asylum seekers without addressing the need for safe and legal migration pathways. The Bishops called for asylum reform and respect for human dignity.

Humanitarian corridors offer safe, legal, and dignified pathways out of dangerous situations, Pope Francis told refugees and supporting organizations on 18 March. He said this approach to migration, supported by the Italian Episcopal Conference and other groups, “points a way forward for Europe.”

Migrants and refugees are “brothers and sisters,” not a “political problem to be solved,” lead migration Bishop Paul McAleenan stresses in “Love the Stranger,” a new Episcopal publication. The Church has a responsibility towards people on the move, who contribute to their new communities, he says.

Pope Francis’s focus on care for migrants has redefined this ministry as a vocation for Bishop Joseph Mary Kizito. In an ACI Africa interview, the lead migration Bishop in Southern Africa speaks about new understandings of people on the move and the call to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate.