Italy could have saved 200 drowning migrants: UN

GENEVA: Italy failed to protect the right to life of more than 200 migrants on a boat that sank in the Mediterranean Sea in 2013, the UN Human Rights Committee found on Wednesday.

Italy "failed to respond promptly to various distress calls from the sinking boat, which was carrying more than 400 adults and children," the committee found. Rome "also failed to explain the delay in dispatching its navy ship, ITS Libra, which was located only about an hour away from the scene".

Three Syrians and a Palestinian, who survived the sinking but lost their families in the tragedy, brought a joint complaint before the committee, a body of 18 independent experts tasked with monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.