The Vatican daily newspaper on Tuesday condemned the more than 4,500 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean this year - the most lethal on record - calling the toll "unacceptable".
"The year 2016 has seen an unacceptable, record number of migrants perish on the boat journey to Italy from the African coast," said the Osservatore Romano, citing data from the International Organisation for Migration.
A total 4,690 migrants and refugees died in the Mediterranean this year amid the ongoing migrant crisis, the IOM said on Tuesday.
The death toll compares with the 3,565 men, women and children who were reported drowned in 2015, the IOM said.
The highest-ever number of boat migrants have reached Italy this year - 171,299 - a figure that already topped the record 170,100 who arrived in the whole of 2014.
This year's arrivals compare with the 144,205 recorded from January to November 2015, according to IOM and Italian authorities
Well over three times as many migrants have crossed the Mediterranean this month (11,872) compared with November last year, despite dangerous sea conditions and colder winter weather, IOM said.
