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Mediterranean Sea

portrait of Zafer Kizilkaya in front of a waterfront

‘Nobody believed us:’ Turkish conservationist wins Goldman Prize for expanding marine-protected areas

Environment

“We don’t have much time to convince all the stakeholders in the world,” said award recipient Zafer Kizilkaya about the urgency of protecting marine life.

Migrants fall into the water during a rescue in the Mediterranean.

What it’s like aboard an NGO ship rescuing hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean

Conflict
Migrant Offshore Aid Station rescues migrants from a rubber dinghy during an operation in the central Mediterranean

This group wants to ‘defend Europe’ from migrants at sea

Conflict
African migrants arriving in Italy from Mediterranean

African migrants are reaching Europe with tales of kidnap and torture in Libya

Conflict
The Libyan coast guard boards a boat in the Mediterranean while humanitarian groups bring migrants onto their ships.

Libya’s coast guard is ‘endangering lives’ of migrants trying to reach Europe

Conflict
Save the Children workers rescue migrants on a boat in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya

Aid groups rescue over 1,600 migrants in the Mediterranean in a single day

Economics

The World’s Richard Hall reported aboard Save the Children’s rescue ship in the Mediterranean. On Tuesday, they saved 635 people — a record for the group’s sea rescue operations. Doctors Without Borders rescued another 1,004 people on the same day.

Migrants look out toward the Maltese island of Gozo, as the boat the Phoenix makes its way toward Italy after rescue operations off the coast of Libya, on May 5.

Fewer migrants are crossing the Mediterranean than last year. But almost as many are dying.

Conflict

The migrant death rate on the Mediterranean is so far triple that of last year.

An Egyptian mother reacts beside the body of her son who was on a boat carrying migrants which capsized off Egypt's coast, in Al-Beheira, Egypt, September 22, 2016.

At least 162 bodies recovered from Egypt migrant shipwreck

Conflict

Fewer migrants are attempting the crossing, but fatality rates have risen, with 2016 on track to be “the deadliest year on record in the Mediterranean Sea,” the UN says.

Italian coastguard personnel in protective clothing carry the body of a dead immigrant off their ship, Bruno Gregoretti, in the Grand Harbor of Valletta, Malta, on April 20, 2015.

‘I am saving up to take the death boat to Europe’

Justice

Despite the clear and growing dangers of crossing the Mediterranean Sea in search of refuge in Europe, the stream of migrants is only getting bigger. The people making the journey say it’s better to take a deadly chance than die slowly in civil wars or along the dangerous routes away from home.

EU leaders have committed extra ships, planes and helicopters to save lives in the Mediterranean at an emergency summit. More than 1,300 migrants have died in April 2015.

Destroying smugglers’ boats won’t fix the Mediterranean refugee crisis, this man says

Justice

Thousands of refugees are dying trying to find refuge in Europe, and the continent’s leaders want to stop the deaths by stopping the smugglers — and blowing up their boats. But that tactic may not fix the problem, and may simply endanger the lives of migrants.