Pope Francis on Sunday decried as shameful the deaths of 130 migrants in the Mediterranean, saying they pleaded for two days for help for their overcrowded, foundering rubber dinghy in the sea off Libya but potential rescuers choose "to look the other way."
Francis called the sea tragedy last week "a moment of shame."
The migrants had made a call for help on Wednesday. On Thursday, when a humanitarian rescue boat and a merchant ship in the area that sailed in very rough waters arrived at the scene, the deflating dinghy had partially sunk, several bodies were seen in the water and no survivors were found. Rescue centers in Libya, Malta and Italy had been alerted, according to the European Union border protection agency Frontex, one of whose planes had located the dinghy.