Libyan fishermen throw a life jacket toward a rubber boat carrying 139 migrants.
The churning waters of the Mediterranean hide many bodies. As the Middle East and Africa have exploded in chaos, racked by war, famine, and ethnic conflict, the middle passage between Libya and Italy has become a graveyard for migrants who attempt the perilous crossing into Europe. Last year alone—the deadliest on record—4,579 refugees died on the journey, the victims of unscrupulous smugglers who dispatch them into the turbulent seas on decrepit boats with no navigational instruments, food, or water.
Migrants lined up on board a rubber dinghy. It takes three days to cross from Libya into Italy, a dangerous voyage that a record 181,000 people undertook last year, fleeing poverty, war, and rising unrest in Africa and the Middle East.
When the Responder found this boat collapsing into the ocean, there wasn't a single life vest on board. Smugglers often cram passengers into unseaworthy vessels—without food, fuel, life jackets, or navigational tools.
Two men panic and struggle as their rubber boat deflates into the water. Since 2015, when the European Union began launching naval missions to destroy the wooden fishing boats traffickers were using to convey migrants, smugglers have increasingly turned to these cheaper inflatable vessels.
Refugees from Eritrea, stuffed in the hold of a rickety fishing boat headed for Italy. Trapped below decks, passengers often pass out or die from the engine fumes. At least two of every hundred migrants who attempt the crossing perish en route.
A rescue worker takes an Eritrean infant off a wooden vessel carrying the child's mother and hundreds of other refugees. Some 25,000 children tried to reach Europe in 2016—more than double the previous year. Ninety percent made the journey on their own.
A Bangladeshi man sits on the deck of the Responder, wrapped in a thermal blanket. He and 27 other migrants were rescued from a tiny wooden boat. Smaller vessels are often better equipped than larger ones, outfitted with life jackets, food, and water.
Migrants sit on the deck of the Responder, wrapped in thermal blankets as they await medical attention.
An Eritrean man grieves over the body of his brother. When the rescue team boarded their ship, four lifeless bodies were carried up from the hold. Last year, the death toll on the sea route between Libya and Italy reached 4,579—the highest on record.
A woman prays and weeps with joy on board the rescue ship the Responder after a harrowing nighttime crossing.
Christian Jensen, a Danish Red Cross doctor on board the Responder, stitches up a gash in a woman's foot. Rescue boats often carry medical teams to provide emergency care and conduct health checks on rescued migrants.
Still on the rescue vessel, migrants sing hymns and prayers as they approach Sicilian soil.
Mathieu Willcocks is a freelance photographer based in Scotland. During the summer of 2016 he was the embedded photographer onboard the Topaz Responder, one of the rescue ships in the Mediterranean, documenting the dangerous route to Europe faced by migrants leaving Libya by sea.