Don't use migrants as pawns in political strategies, Pope tells governments

FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis arrives at St. Peter's Basilica as part of the weekly general audience at the Vatican, November 24, 2021. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Monday that migrants were being exploited as "pawns" on a political chessboard in an apparent reference to the crisis at the Belarus border.

Thousands of migrants are stuck on the European Union's eastern frontier in what the EU says is a crisis Minsk engineered by distributing Belarusian visas in the Middle East,