Pope John Paul has condemned the illegal traffic in immigrants to Europe, after a week in which people have died or been stranded in three separate incidents at sea.

The Pope said he deplored the unscrupulous smugglers who preyed on people's misery in their thirst for profit.

He appealed to governments to stop the trafficking and improve conditions in the immigrants' home countries.

On Friday at least three Kosovar Albanians drowned after a dinghy in which they were trying to cross the Adriatic to Italy capsized after hitting a motor-boat.

In other incidents, twenty-six Moroccans were lost at sea while trying to reach Spain and more than one-hundred-and-fifty Kurds were abandoned on an uninhabited Greek island, after a Syrian trawler on which they had been travelling ran into mechanical difficulties.