A marine cemetery remembers the thousands of Syrian refugees who lost their lives at sea
An international aid agency is doing this to draw attention to 4,000-plus refugees who have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean.
"I used to dream of watching the sea. I hate it now," says Khaled Alkhamis as the video begins with breakers crashing over the rocks by the shore. A row of floating gravestones is seen, each of them managing to stay afloat on the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
These are scenes from Support to Life's The Sea Cemetery, a project that wants to draw attention to the number of people who have perished at sea while trying to escape the strife they face in their Syrian homeland. On the website, each floating gravestone expands to a larger news story about events related to the migration of over 4.6 million Syrians.
Close to 200 styrofoam headstones are floating off the coast of Turkey as part of the project, each bearing the name of one of the 8,632 refugees who are believed to have been lost during the arduous journey.
This comes close on the heels of two tragic shipwrecks over the last fortnight. One incident led to the drowning of five people and in another, the confirmed number is closer to 20, although more are feared to have been lost.
In Italy, the mayor of Tarsia has planned to build a cemetery dedicated to Syrian refugees. He said, "Dedicating a part of our territory to the burial of these victims is simply an act of great humanity." The location is a field next to the site of a former concentration camp.