Makkox's cartoon of drowned migrant boy with report card sparks debate

Italian satirist Marco Dambrosio, known as Makkox, published a cartoon in Il Foglio on January 11, 2019, depicting a drowned migrant boy playing with sea creatures on the Mediterranean seabed, proudly holding a report card with all tens in Arabic and French. The boy, from Mali, died on April 18, 2015, when a boat carrying about 950 people from Egypt sank off Libya in the Sicily Channel; only about 30 survived. The cartoon was inspired by forensic anthropologist Cristina Cattaneo's book Naufraghi senza volto (2018), in which she recounts finding the report card sewn into the boy's pocket during her work with the Labanof laboratory at the University of Milan. Cattaneo has examined hundreds of migrant bodies, striving to restore dignity and identity to the deceased. The cartoon and book highlight the ongoing humanitarian crisis and the failure of Western governments to address migrant deaths. The image quickly spread across websites and social media, sparking widespread discussion.