Vatican City - Speaking at the end of a week that saw some 70 would-be refugees drown off Malta, Pope Benedict XVI appealed to politicans in both Africa and Europe Sunday to tackle the problems behind illegal immigration. "The emergency into which the wave of migration has recently developed demands our solidarity, but at the same time needs an effective political response," he said during his weekly Angelus address to thousands of Roman Catholic faithful in St Peter's Square.
The countries of origin as well as the countries which migrants were desperately trying to reach all needed to work towards removing the need to migrate and the crimes associated with illegal migration.
Each year tens of thousands of would-be migrants make hazardous crossings across the Mediterranean from African to European Union countries, leading to tragedies like that off Malta last Monday.
Just eight eight people were saved from a vessel which sank off the island, with the loss of some 70 lives.
