ROME — Pope Francis has mourned the death of 41 shipwrecked migrants in the Mediterranean Sea in the midst of a new wave of immigration from Africa into Italy.
“With sorrow I heard about the news of the shipwreck involving migrants in the Mediterranean Sea,” the pontiff declared Thursday on Twitter. “Let us not remain indifferent to these tragedies, and let us pray for the victims and their families.”
Pope Francis (C) speaks to migrants during his visit to the island of Lampedusa, a key destination of tens of thousands of would-be immigrants from Africa, on July 8, 2013 (ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images).
On Wednesday, 41 migrants died when the vessel transporting them from Tunisia to Italy capsized. Only four people survived the shipwreck and were rescued by a Maltese cargo ship and taken to Lampedusa by the Italian Coast Guard.
According to the United Nations, nearly 91,000 migrants have reached Italy this year after crossing the Mediterranean Sea, more than double the number that arrived during the same period last year.
As a point of comparison, in all of 2022, a total of 105,131 immigrants arrived in Italy, up from 67,477 the prior year. Current immigration numbers have nearly reached the levels of Europe’s immigration crisis of 2015-2017.
July’s total of 21,981 migrants is the highest monthly figure since June 2017, when 23,524 immigrants arrived on Italian shores.
The U.N. Office on Immigration reports that many of the immigrants arriving in 2023 are from Sub-Saharan Africa, and the top three countries of origin are Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Egypt.
Some of the migrants are fleeing conflicts in countries such as Sudan and Ethiopia or drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, while many are simply trying to escape poverty by relocating to wealthier lands.
Vatican News has insisted that one of the drivers behind the new waves of immigration is “the climate crisis throughout the African continent that has devastated crops, herds, and livelihoods.”
The only Italian policy to date that effectively curbed migrant deaths in the Mediterranean Sea was the closing of Italian ports to illegal immigrants in 2018, which resulted in a dramatic drop in deaths across the Strait of Sicily.
The move eliminated the profit motive for the many unscrupulous people smugglers who exploited unsuspecting Africans by promising jobs in Italy while charging tens of thousands of dollars for the crossing.