Pope Francis has denounced what he called Europe’s indifference to migrants who risk their lives to cross the Mediterranean, saying their exclusion was "scandalous, disgusting and sinful."

Greece has called on Turkey to block all boat departures of migrants from its country, due to the shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea last week in which 23 persons lost their lives.

The bodies of 15 people were found on a beach near the city of Sabratha in Libya on Friday, most of them burned inside a charred boat. The UN mission in Libya has condemned the killing and accused migrant smugglers.

Germany’s interior minister Nancy Faeser has called for a national stop to expulsions to Iran because of a violent crackdown on protests there.