Over 3,200 migrants have died in Mediterranean this year, Italian bishops' spokesman reports
December 10, 2015
More than 3,200 people—including 700 children-- have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe this year, according to a foundation established by the Italian bishops’ conference to help migrants.
Msgr. Gian Carlo Perego, who heads the Migrantes Foundation, noted that the number of fatalities this year is twice that of 2014. To complicate matters, he observed that European nations have responded to fears of terrorism by raising barriers to immigrants. “Fear and convenience seem to have taken the concept of international protection years backward,” he said.
Msgr. Perego argued that humanitarian efforts to help migrants “would have not only saved human lives, they would also have countered human trafficking, which helps fund terrorism."
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