Activists: Slow response led to 30 migrant deaths off Libya

By COLLEEN BARRY
Associated Press

MILAN (AP) — An activist group that supports rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea is accusing Italy of failing to offer timely assistance to a smugglers’ boat in distress, resulting in a deadly shipwreck that left at least 30 migrants missing and presumed dead in Libya’s search-and-rescue area. Seventeen survivors were rescued in an operation Sunday partially coordinated by the Italian Coast Guard. The incident comes two weeks after another deadly shipwreck off the Coast of Calabria left at least 79 people dead. They have focused attention on Italian and European protocols for responding to suspected smuggling boats. Crossing in the central Mediterranean have doubled in the past year.