The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that in 2014, about 3,500 migrants, out of the 218,000 who attempted, perished while sailing to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.

The deaths continue in 2015, with the latest incident happening last week when another 300 migrants drowned, reports BBC.

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The UNHCR attributed the rise in migrant deaths to the scaling down of the Mare Nostrum, the search-and-rescue operations that Italy launched in October 2013 and ended in 2014, although Triton, a smaller vessel, was deployed by the European Union.

The 300 migrants from Libya were spread in four dinghies, and unfortunately, their boats encountered trouble while sailing the Mediterranean Sea, considered a perilous route by sea for Africans seeking a better life in Europe.

Carlotta Sami, the UNHCR representative for southern Europe, said, "We warned everybody in October that by lowering the tension and the operational capacity of the search and rescue operation, this might happen."

On Wednesday, the corpse of the drowned Libyan migrants were transported to Lampedusa, an Italian island. Their bodies were placed on a harbor, while island authorities allowed the use of an old airport as temporary morgue.

The International Organization for Migrants (IOM) agrees with the UNHCR that more migrants could have been saved in last week's tragedy.

"We think it could certainly have been prevented had there been a better life-saving flotilla or task force in place," an IOM spokesman said.

Pope Francis, upon learning of the tragedy, said a prayer for the victims and encouraged more solidarity on the matter of Europe-bound migrants who are willing to risk their lives on the high seas for a chance to live a better life in the continent.

In 2013, before the Lampedusa tragedy, the pontiff condemned "the globalization of indifference" which made everyone "unnamed."

TagsUHNCR, migrant deaths, Mediterranean Sea, Libya, Mare Nostrum, Lampedusa, Pope Francis