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Around Lampedusa, deaths and disappearances
have been recorded for more than a decade.
The numbers rise and fall from year to year.
Each record marks an incident, sometimes involving several people.
What emerges when we follow these records through time?
Only the distance from Lampedusa is to scale. Directions and paths are illustrative.
From 2014 to 2025, records located within 50 kilometers of Lampedusa counted 833 people dead or missing. Some disappeared at sea. Others died after reaching land. Being close to the island did not always mean reaching safety.
Lampedusa lies about 190 kilometers from Sfax, Tunisia, and 205 kilometers from Sicily. Though closer to North Africa, it is part of Italy. For people seeking safety or a new life, the island offers a relatively short crossing to European soil.
For people leaving Tunisia, Lampedusa can be a first arrival point, with hopes of continuing farther into Europe. But even this relatively short crossing carries dangers. Boats can capsize, and exposure or a lack of essential care can turn the journey fatal.
The losses rise and fall, with a heavier toll in recent years. More people were recorded dead or missing in 2024 than in any other year shown here. The number fell in 2025, but remained higher than in any year before 2022.
who never got to live the lives they had hoped for.
Each circle represents one person recorded dead or missing. Groups reflect the cause reported for each record; records with multiple causes are grouped together.
People make these journeys hoping to build a life somewhere new.
Some disappeared at sea. Some died after reaching land.
The records cannot tell us everything about their lives.
But across twelve years, they show that the losses continued.
