Pope appeals for care and protection of migrant children

Vatican News

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday issued an urgent appeal to everyone to take responsibility for young migrants and refugees exposed to violence, exploitation and traumatic conditions along migration routes.

His appeal comes four days before the 112th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, to which the Pope has issued a message on  the theme “Even just one of these children.”

“Sunday, September 27, marks the World Day of Migrants and Refugees,” he said at the conclusion of his General Audience in St Peter’s Square, noting that his “thoughts go out to migrants and refugees, especially minors forced to leave their homelands.”

“Children and adolescents are the most vulnerable,” he continued, noting that they “often endure unspeakable suffering—violence, torture, exploitation, and traumatic conditions—and not infrequently lose their lives along migration routes.”

The Pope then made a direct appeal: “I appeal to everyone’s sense of responsibility. Let everyone feel personally involved in the lives of these young people, who must always be protected and cared for.”

Pope Leo’s appeal came as the Church prepares to celebrate the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on 27 September.

‘Even just one of these children’

In his message for the World Day, published in August, the Pope recalls that minors are among the most vulnerable people involved in migration and forced displacement.

In it he notes that millions of children and adolescents “are forced to leave their homeland because of war, poverty, violence, environmental disasters and other tragedies. Sadly, their number continues to grow.“

Pope Leo also points to “deaths along migration routes, trafficking and exploitation, the recruitment of minors for use in armed conflicts, sexual violence, forced marriages, and the atrocities they have suffered or witnessed during their travels. Their dignity is trampled upon in countless ways.”

Yet the Pope insists that the response cannot be reduced to statistics.

“Before this tragic reality,” he writes, “my thoughts turn to the words of Jesus that profoundly challenge our consciences: ‘Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me’”.

Human faces behind the numbers

According to UNHCR’s Global Trends 2025, published in June 2026, 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced at the end of 2025 as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and the climate crisis.

The figure included 41.6 million refugees, 9 million asylum-seekers and 68.7 million people displaced within their own countries by conflict or violence.

Children make up a particularly large share of displaced populations. UNHCR estimates that 45 million children under the age of 18 were among the 117.8 million forcibly displaced people at the end of 2025. Among refugees, people in refugee-like situations and other people in need of international protection, 39 per cent were children.