(AFP) – Pope Francis will travel to the Greek island of Lesbos on the frontline of Europe’s refugee crisis next week, Greece announced Tuesday, as a controversial EU accord to send migrants back to Turkey stalled. The trip by the pope, who will be accompanied by the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, is likely to pile pressure on European leaders already criticised for the deal with Turkey, which aims to defuse Europe’s worst migration crisis since World War II by curbing the influx of people. “The Greek government will welcome Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as valuable defenders of support to refugees, and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will go with (them) to the island of Lesbos,” a government source in Athens said, adding the trip would happen on April 14 or 15. News of the visit came as a last-minute rush of asylum applications stalled operations to return migrants from Greece to Turkey under a deal signed in March. The holiday island of Lesbos has served as a major gateway for refugees and other migrants hoping to start new lives in Europe, with hundreds of thousands of people sailing there in flimsy boats from the nearby