'Now I wait for Pope Leo,' says the Canary Islands migrant who moved Pope Francis

The wind, the thirst, the cayuco steadily taking on water, the waves, the darkness, the people who died at sea, among them his own brother. Then came a new beginning: a warm welcome, work as a chef, and an invitation to visit the Canary Islands, together with an offer to personally accompany the Pope through the port of Arguineguín. For years, the harbour was known as el muelle de la vergüenza—“the pier of shame”—because of the overcrowding and precarious conditions in which thousands of migrants were forced to live.

Pope Francis was deeply moved when he read the words written by Ousseynou Fall, a former fisherman who fled Senegal and now lives on Gran Canaria.

In a letter, Ousseynou recounted his story: the story of leaving Africa, his homeland, and beginning life anew in the Canary Islands. It is a story in which tragedy was met with generosity and selfless solidarity; a story shared by many migrants who survived the notorious Atlantic Route and reached the shores of the Canary Islands, unlike so many others who never made it.

Ousseynou and several other young migrants had written to the Pope, who made the issue of migration one of the defining priorities of his pontificate, inviting him to visit the places that had enabled them to begin a new life.

In his letter, delivered to Pope Francis during the papal journey to Luxembourg and Belgium by Spanish Radio COPE journalist Eva Fernández, Ousseynou wrote that such a visit would be “a great comfort” to him and to his companions.

Moved by their stories, Pope Francis decided to visit the archipelago, envisaging it as the third stage of a journey dedicated to migration after Lampedusa and Lesbos. Illness and, later, his death prevented the trip from taking place.

Now, Pope Leo XIV has taken up his predecessor’s wish and will visit the Canary Islands on 11 and 12 June at the conclusion of his Apostolic Journey to Spain.

Ousseynou will be there to welcome the Pope, together with other migrants, relatives of those who disappeared at sea, rescue teams and volunteers. It will be the very place where, six years ago, he arrived cold, exhausted and thirsty, sleeping beside a drain on the pier, before being strengthened by the warmth—above all the human warmth—of the local community.