Rights groups: EU leaders don’t care about drowning immigrants

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A terrible humanitarian disaster is unfolding on Europe’s doorstep, with the stream of desperate migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe growing every day. The situation has become so complex as to almost defy cogent analysis – the influx of destitute and desperate people has put an unrelenting strain on EU nations that appear unable to cope; and what society could cope with 6,500 migrants in the space of two days, as Italy had to at the weekend? While the numbers who drowned remain unknown, regional coast guards are completely overwhelmed by the unprecedented scale of the work facing them – in Libya alone there is said to be half a million migrants waiting to board increasingly unseaworthy vessels. Simply awful.