One year after 366 people drowned near Lampedusa, Italy, during a desperate attempt to reach Europe, many thousands more have undertaken the same perilous journey. War and protracted crises, including the conflict in Syria and the violence in Libya, have pushed an unprecedented number of people to pay smugglers to help them cross the Mediterranean Sea, their only option to reach Europe.
The Central Mediterranean route from Northern Libya to Italy may well be the most dangerous. The risk of dying at sea is high, but equally dangerous is the extreme violence often experienced along the way at the hands of illegal traffickers who control and profit from the desperation of those who are willing to risk everything.