X Breaking News: Tragic sinking of passenger ship… See more
We just witnessed the deadliest shipwreck in years. The world barely flinched.
It’s a date that should go down in history — a stain on our collective conscience. On June 14th, 2023, the Adriana, a fishing boat carrying 750 people, capsized in the Mediterranean. The more than 600 deaths were entirely preventable. And yet the world barely flinched.
Few were interested in why those desperate hundreds risked their lives in search of better, handed their life savings to brutal smugglers, and crammed themselves onto an unseaworthy vessel bound for Europe. I wonder if we will ever learn the names of the dead.
They were families, neighbors, and groups of friends from Syria, Pakistan, and Egypt. They began their doomed voyage in Libya, where they piled into a rusting boat. The smugglers forced the Pakistanis, women and children into the lower decks. There were no life-jackets.
The journey to Italy was supposed to take three days. On the second day the engine faltered, the food and water ran out the following day. The first deaths came on day three, and on the fourth day, the Adriana at last issued a distress call.
