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.

What happened next is still unclear. Coast guards monitored the ship as the smugglers reportedly insisted on continuing their journey. Then, in the early hours of June 14, disaster struck, and the boat capsized — an investigation into how and why is ongoing.

The hundreds below deck were killed instantly, pulled beneath the waves as the ship sank and the passengers on the upper decks were thrown into the water. The coast guard rescued 104 people and recovered 82 bodies. No women or children were among the survivors.

See also: The final journey of the Adriana is simulated in the video below (Source: YouTube) NO RESCUE: The Final Voyage of Fishing Trawler Adriana