Pope urges world to act on causes of migration crisis

ROME: Pope Francis marked UN World Food Day on Monday with a call for world governments to act together to fight the hunger, conflicts and climate change driving mass migration from the developing to the industrialised world.

In a speech to the global body’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome, Francis said love rather than pity should be placed at the heart of international development efforts, and threw his weight behind efforts in the UN to negotiate a global accord on managed, safe migration.

"Is it too much to ask to think of inserting the concept of love into the language of international cooperation," Francis said in a speech that was greeted with a standing ovation. "We cannot limit ourselves to pity, because pity stops with emergency aid while love inspires justice and is essential to create a just social order," Francis said.

Francis cited the Paris climate change accord as an example of what could be achieved if governments worked together, while bemoaning that some were now "distancing themselves from it" - an apparent swipe at US President Donald Trump.