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Pope mourns Mediterranean shipwrecks that claimed 170 lives

Pope mourns Mediterranean shipwrecks that claimed 170 lives | iNFOnews.ca
FILE - In this Sunday Feb. 18, 2018 file photo, refugees and migrants wait to be rescued by aid workers 60 miles north of Al-Khums, Libya. A migration official says survivors have told rescuers that up to 117 migrants might have died when a rubber dinghy capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya. Flavio Di Giacomo of International Organization for Migration says three survivors were plucked to safety by an Italian navy helicopter Friday, Jan. 18, 2019 and they say 120 were aboard when the dinghy left Libya. The Italian Coast Guard says Libya asked a nearby cargo ship to search for survivors but reported that no one was found. (AP Photo/Olmo Calvo, File )

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has expressed sorrow over the lost lives of 170 migrants who drowned in recent days in the Mediterranean Sea.

The U.N. refugee agency has said 117 migrants died or were missing after a smuggler’s dinghy sank off Libya Jan. 18, and that 53 others died in the capsizing of another migrant boat in the western Mediterranean a few days earlier.

In remarks in St. Peter’s Square Sunday, Francis said those who drowned had looked for better lives and were “victims, perhaps, of human traffickers.”

The pope said: “Let us pray for them and for those who have the responsibility for what happened.”

Two Mediterranean nations, Italy and Malta, have cracked down on private groups whose boats aim to rescue migrants from traffickers’ unseaworthy boats.

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