The Inside Story of an NGO Rescue Ship That Saves Migrants From Dying at Sea

Italy is deliberately making it hard to save lives at sea

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Mediterranean Sea 2022 @ Candida Lobes/MSF

It has been an exceptionally deadly year for migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

The first eight months of 2023 have been the deadliest on record since 2017, with over 2,000 deaths and counting. There are a few reasons for this. The preferred routes that migrants and refugees take has shifted. Whereas before the most popular route was from Libya to Greece (the so-called “Aegean Route”), for the last several months that has shifted west. More and more migrants are now departing from Tunisia to Italy. The smugglers are equally unscrupulous, but the kind of warn-down metal boats used by Tu…