"We should not use the word **migrant**"

September 7, 2015

As migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Asia and Africa continue to flood Europe, looking to escape conflict in their homes, U2's lead singer addressed the crisis while attending the 2015 Expo world's fair in Milan, Italy on Sunday. 

Bono told the conference that the plight of those fleeing their homes for Europe is being misrepresented. 

"We should not use the word migrant. Migrant is a political word that used to take away the real status of these people," he said. 

"They are refugees. They are running from war and they actually liked their homes and they're not leaving their homes because they want to live in Italy or they want to live in Ireland. They're leaving their homes because they don't have any homes."

The U2 frontman spoke at a conference set up by Bono's home country of Ireland and Italy, focusing on world hunger and supporting the World Food Programme. 

The event as also attended by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. 

Bono, who maintains the problem isn't the lack of food but a lack to political will to distribute food, said hunger contributes to political instability in places like Africa. 

"You see the combination of extreme climate, extreme poverty and extreme ideology," he told the conference. 

"These three extremes are creating a lot of problems and if you see on a map where all the problems have been from Al Shabab in Somalia, right the way through to Boko Haram in Nigeria, all the way along, you see these three extremes."

The WFP - part of the United Nations - is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger and supplying emergency food aid to people affected by war, conflict and natural disasters. 

Bono's speech comes after fellow singer and Live Aid creator Bob Geldof told the press that he would house four Syrian refugee families in his homes in London and Kent.