Rescue groups decry loss of migrant lives in Mediterranean

Rescue groups and the Vatican are decrying the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean on unseaworthy boats, even as more lives were reported in danger in rough seas

ROME -- Rescue groups and the Vatican are decrying the latest deaths of migrants who put to sea in traffickers’ unseaworthy boats, amid laments that central Mediterranean nations are choosing not to dispatch vessels to save them. Aid group Alarm Phone said in a tweet that despite a spotter plane locating an overcrowded ship in the sea north of Libya on Wednesday and pleas for help from the occupants, "only non-state actors actively searched for the boat in distress at sea.” By the time a charity rescue ship reached the site on Thursday evening, the boat had capsized and all the estimated 130 occupants are believed to have drowned. “Abandoned and buried at sea” read the headline across a photo of the sea on the front page of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper on Saturday.