Aboard the ghost ship abandoned off the coast of Italy

ISTANBUL — Abdo al Jawabrah knew the journey was dangerous

His cousins were among more than 3,000 migrants killed crossing the Mediterranean last year — the sea's deadliest year on record

Yet, like so many before him, Jawabrah decided he'd risk dying at sea for the chance to get his family a better life in Europe.

See also: The Deadly Mediterranean Crossing That Migrants Risk Every Day

So the father of four boarded the Blue Sky M off the coast of the Turkish port city of Mersin on Dec. 21, having found the passage with the help of a human smuggler. More than 750 other people, many of them men, women and children from Syria, joined him in the aging cargo ship's tomb-like hold Read more...

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