Monsignor Gian Carlo Perego, head of the Migrantes Foundation, said that more than 3,200 people have died this year, compared with 1,600 people who died in 2014.
Of that the 2015 figure, around 700 were children according to ANSA Med, the Italian news service.
Monsignor Perego said: ''Europe always finds resources to bomb but does not find them to save innocent lives.
"The European operation Triton has not been able to increase rescues at sea compared with the Italian operation.
''This is a disgrace that weighs on the European conscience. Europe now seems - faced with the threat of terrorism - to be justifying the walls and the closing of borders, as well as the disengagement from creating humanitarian channels that would have not only saved human lives, they would also have countered human trafficking, which helps fund terrorism.''
He added that: ''the reception at our ports, instead of open reception centres, seems to have led once again to closed centres, the 'hotspots', as seen on Lampedusa: over 20,000 people arrived at the port and were transferred to the centre, with all entrances and exits closed. Fear and convenience seems to have taken the concept of international protection years backward in Europe.''
He did speak well of the reception that asylum seekers recieved upon entering Europe.
Following an appeal by Pope Francis about helping one another and families, Monsignor Gian Carlo Perego added that this was an "intelligent reception that helps to get to know the faces and stories of suffering, and to build, in this time of Advent, plans for international cooperation.
"Once again the Church has made a concrete gesture that gets past prejudices and ideological counter-positions, accompanying people with a view towards a 'culture of coming together' that regenerates our cities."
