2016 Photo Contest, Contemporary Issues, 2nd prize

In the Same Boat

Photographer

Francesco Zizola

Médecins Sans Frontières

21 August, 2015

Refugees leave a sinking rubber dinghy, and climb aboard a boat launched to transfer them to the Médecins Sans Frontières rescue vessel Bourbon Argos.

For some years, refugees have been crossing the strait in the Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Italy, often in unseaworthy vessels. The passage is longer and more dangerous than at more recent crossing points, between Turkey and Greece. Nearly 140,000 people reached Italian soil from Libya in 2015, but more than 2,800 drowned while trying to make the crossing. Search and rescue operations are carried out in the region by a number of bodies, such as the international medical relief organization Médecins Sans Frontières.

About the photographer

Francesco Zizola

Born in 1962, since 1980's he has documented the world's major conflicts and their hidden crisis, focusing on the social and humanitarian issues that define life in the developin...

This image is collected in