Don’t take in more refugees than you can handle: Pope

Pope Francis warned European governments not to take in more asylum seekers than can be integrated into their societies.

Rome - Pope Francis warned European governments on Tuesday not to take in more asylum seekers than can be integrated into their societies.

"I believe that one cannot harden one's heart to any refugee," Francis said on his return flight to Rome from Malmo, Sweden, where he ended a two-day visit to the Nordic country for the commemoration of the Protestant Reformation.

"It is inhumane to shut the doors," he continued. "It is inhumane to close the heart. Because, in the long run, there is a price to be paid - one pays politically, just as one can also pay for the carelessness of taking in more people than one can integrate."

France, Germany, Hungary and other European countries have seen a rise in nationalism and growing pockets of anti-immigrant sentiment following the arrival of more than 1 million people in 2015, many fleeing the conflict in Syria.

"Those who govern must be very open to take them [asylum seekers] in, but they also need to calculate how they can be accommodated," Francis said, "because one must not only accommodate a refugee, but also integrate him."

SAPA-dpa