The Raft of the Forgotten

Amid the raging waves of the Mediterranean, a fragile raft drifts aimlessly, carrying shadows of the nameless and faceless. Those onboard float between hope and despair, a purgatory of water and mirage that, for many, becomes the final destination.

The years 2024 and 2025 marked a grim escalation in migrant deaths in the icy waters of the Mediterranean. Over 2,450 people lost their lives or disappeared along this perilous route in 2024 alone. In the first quarter of 2025, at least 343 more were recorded dead or missing, a toll that continues to rise.

These rafts have become silent symbols of the displaced, ghosts adrift in the cold waves, suspended between the ruins of their homes and the shores that refuse to welcome them.

Migrants who once had faces and names are now reduced to mere shadows, swallowed by the sea and erased by the indifference of the world. Lives that slowly fade into the thin gray lines of reports, forgotten as the waves continue to crash.