A journey unto death
Migrants seeking a better life in Europe have died by the thousands in the Mediterranean Sea in recent
years while fleeing poverty and bloodshed in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
The precise number of deaths is unknown. Authorities count only those bodies found in the sea, on
shore, or aboard boats. Survivors often tell of fellow passengers who lost their lives at sea, but the
bodies are never found.
As many as 1,500 migrants are believed to have died trying to cross the Mediterranean so far this year.
Many were children.
The death toll in 2015 is on course to far exceed the 3,200 people who died making the journey in 2014
– according to the International Organisation for Migration – given that the summer peak has not yet
begun. Fewer than 100 of the deaths in 2014 took place before May.
Migrants are rescued by members of the Greek Coast guard and locals after a wooden sailboat
carrying dozens of immigrants ran aground off the coast of the island of Rhodes.
A
child is carried off a boat by a rescue worker at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo.
Two migrants rest at Maspalomas beach on Gran Canaria after travelling from Africa in a
fishing boat.
A
rubber dinghy with 104 people on board waiting to be rescued is seen some 25 miles off the
Libyan coast.
Members of Libya's coast guard recover the body of a migrant off the coast of Tripoli.
Migrants pay thousands of dollars to human traffickers in Libya and other refugee transit hot spots for the
perilous voyage across the Mediterranean.
Libya's plunge into anarchy has created an ideal environment for smugglers, who pack people fleeing war and
poverty in the Arab world and sub-Saharan African onto rickety boats that set sail for Europe -- mainly aiming
for Italy or Malta.
A
rescued woman and her baby disembark from a Spanish coast guard vessel in Tarifa.
Hundreds of migrants are seen aboard an Italian Navy vessel before disembarking in the
Sicilian port of Augusta.
Around 250 migrants are hoisted onto a landing craft of an Italian Navy ship after being
rescued in the Mediterranean between Italy and Libya.
October 5, 2013: Coffins are laid out in a hangar at Lampedusa airport after a boat packed
with migrants sank, killing more than 360.
European officials are struggling to come up with a policy to respond more humanely to an exodus of migrants
travelling by sea from Africa and Asia to Europe, without worsening the crisis by encouraging more to leave.
An Italian naval operation in the southern Mediterranean, known as "Mare Nostrum", was cancelled in 2014,
partly because of its cost, but also due to domestic opposition to sea rescues that could encourage more
migration.
It was replaced in November 2014 by a far smaller EU mission with a third of the budget, a decision that seems
to have made the journey much deadlier for migrants packed into rickety vessels by traffickers who promise a
better life in Europe.
A
boat overflowing with people rescued from three boats that sank in a violent storm off the
coast of Libya arrive in the port of Tripoli. More than 200 were presumed dead.
A
man rests after arriving with other 63 sub-Saharan immigrants at La Tejita beach on the
Spanish Canary island of Tenerife.
Some 115 would-be immigrants await rescue on their boat after it ran into difficulties, 48
nautical miles off Malta.
A
group of migrants in a half-submerged dinghy await rescue by the Armed Forces of Malta
while sheltering against the hull of a cargo ship.
A
man offer prayers of thanks after arriving at a beach on Spain's Canary island of Gran
Canaria.
A
small boat packed with 53 people drifts off Malta after its engine failed.
First aid
workers and tourists on a beach on the Spanish Canary island of Tenerife help African
migrants suffering from the effects of their perilous voyage.
A
migrant crawls onto the beach after washing up in a makeshift boat on the Gran Tarajal
beach on Spain's Canary Island of Fuerteventura.
Members of the Maltese armed forces toss bottles of water to a group of around 180 illegal
immigrants after their vessel ran into engine trouble, off the coast of Malta.
Migrants try to climb aboard a Spanish civil guard vessel after their makeshift boat capsized
during a rescue operation at sea off the coast of Fuerteventura.
The body of a migrant who drowned after his makeshift boat capsized lies covered on El
Matorral beach in Fuerteventura, Spain, as holidaymakers walk along the shore.