(ANSA-AP) - SOFIA, MAY 6 - Pope Francis met Monday with refugees in Bulgaria's showcase refugee center and told them they are bear ing the "cross of humanity," after he urged the migrant-skeptic government to not close its eyes to their suffering. Children from Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere sang for Francis and gave him drawings during a visit to the Vrazhdebna center, located in a school refurbished with EU funds on the outskirts of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. Francis thanked the children for their joy and hope, and told them that he knows well the pain of leaving behind one's country. He compared their suffering to the cross Christ bore. "Today, the world of migrants and refugees is a kind of cross, the cross of humanity," Francis said. "It's a cross that many people suffer." Bulgaria's center-right government has been criticized by human rights groups and the European Council for its treatment of asylum-seekers, particularly unaccompanied minors. The government, which includes three nationalist, anti-migrant parties, has called for the EU to close its borders to migrants and has sealed off its own border with Turkey with a barbed-wire fence. Francis is on the second-day of a three-day visit to the Balkans. (ANSA-AP).