Pope Francis urged politicians on Sunday to pay attention to the “open wound” of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, saying he was praying for the 41 people who died in a shipwreck earlier this month, News.ro reported, citing Reuters.

“It is with pain and shame that we have to state that since the beginning of the year, almost 2,000 men, women and children have died in that sea, trying to reach Europe. I encourage the political and diplomatic forces that are trying to heal this wound in a spirit of solidarity and fraternity, as well as the efforts of those working to prevent shipwrecks and rescue migrants,” Francis said after the weekly Angelus prayer.

Fatal disasters are common when migrants try to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 22,000 people have died or gone missing in its waters since 2014.

Port officials on the Italian island of Sicily found a body on Sunday after a boat carrying 13 immigrants capsized off the island of Marettimo on Saturday night, the ANSA news agency reported.

Another person was also considered dead.

Six people died on Saturday after a boat carrying migrants trying to cross the English Channel from France to Britain capsized in the early hours of Saturday morning, and two others are still missing, French authorities said.

The Pope also asked to pray for Ukraine and for the victims of the fires in Maui, Hawaii.

The death toll from those fires reached 93 on Saturday, making them the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.

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