Mediterranean Sea Rescue

In the last three years Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has carried out nearly 400 search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea. Every year thousands of refugees, many fleeing from violence, war, persecution and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, drown while trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean. MSF has saved thousands of other refugees from suffering the same fate.

The MSF Search and Rescue interactive map shows the locations of all of MSF's rescues in the Mediterranean since 2014. The majority of these sea rescues have taken place off the coast of Libya. The MSF says that "almost everyone rescued from this stretch of water has passed through Libya, where many of them have been exposed to alarming levels of violence and exploitation".


More than 5,000 refugees died in 2016 trying to get to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea. Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat - Mapping and Documenting Migratory Journeys and Experiences is an international research project, led by the University of Warwick, which carried out 257 in-depth qualitative interviews with people who have made this journey.

The project has released an interactive story map which allows you to view some of these migratory journeys on a map, while also learning about the individual experiences of the people who actually made the journeys.

Each of these individual journeys are mapped to show each stage of one refugee's migration from Africa to Europe. 'Back' and 'Next' buttons allow the user to follow each stage of the journey made by the interviewed refugees. As the map updates the map side-panel also updates to provide information about the journey. This information includes the first-hand experiences of the individual refugee and more general information about the conditions that refugees experience at the mapped locations.


15 Years: Fortress Europe is an animated map of migrant and refugee deaths in Europe over the last fifteen years. The map uses data from the Migrant Files to show where and when migrants have died while trying to get to Europe, or while trying to move around the continent.

As the map plays through the fifteen years of data red markers are added to the map to show the location of each migrant death. The map sidebar continually updates to show details about each migrant death and you can click on individual markers on the map to read more details about each of these deaths.

Since 2013 the Migrant Files has been maintaining a database of migrants who have died in Europe or on their way to Europe. The database lists more than 30,000 people who have died trying to get to Europe since the year 2000.

An interactive map on the Migrant Files website shows that a large proportion of these deaths occur in the Mediterranean, particularly among migrants trying to cross from Libya & Tunisia to Italy.


The Silk team has also created an interactive map from the Migrants' Files data examining the number of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. Their map allows you to query the information about migrant deaths by year, location and cause of death.

If you click on a map marker on the Fatal Migration Incidents in the Mediterranean map you can read details about the mapped incident, including the number of casualties and the date of the incident.


The Migrant Map 2000-2015 is another interactive map of the Migrant Files data, visualizing the number of dead or missing migrants across Europe and Africa. The map presents a truly shocking picture of the scale of this human tragedy.

You can select markers on the map to learn more about the individual cases reported and about the source of the information. The map also includes an animated heat-map layer which helps to highlight some of the hot-spots for migrant deaths over the last six years.