Migrants have been crossing the Mediterranean strait between Libya and Italy for years now, often in unseaworthy ships. The crossing is longer and more dangerous than more recent routes, such as those between Turkey and Greece. According to the UNHCR, more than 2,500 people died or went missing in 2023 while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. During the same period, around 186,000 people arrived in European countries. This is a significant number, but far less than in recent years, particularly between 2014 and 2017.

Photojournalist Arez Ghaderi, born in 1987 in Sanandaj, a Kurdish province in Iran, lived in several refugee camps during his first year in Germany, where he listened to compelling stories told by people who had fled to Germany. In December of 2022, he had an opportunity to photograph refugees on their way to Europe and took part in a sea rescue mission in the central Mediterranean with the organization SOS Humanity. His photographs tell the refugees’ stories.