Fifty-three illegal migrants, including two babies, were dead or missing after a rubber boat carrying 55 people capsized off the coast of Libya, the International Organisation for Migration said on Monday. The boat departed from Zawiya on Thursday and then overturned off Zuwara on Friday, the IOM said in a statement, citing the survivors.
Zawiya and Zuwara are coastal towns west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. “Only two Nigerian women were rescued during a search-and-rescue operation by Libyan authorities. One survivor reported losing her husband, while the other said she lost her two babies in the tragedy,” the IOM said.
More than 1,300 illegal migrants have gone missing in the Central Mediterranean in 2025, according to the UN agency.
In January alone, at least 375 illegal migrants were reported dead or missing in the area following multiple “invisible” shipwreck amid extreme weather, with hundreds more deaths believed to have gone unrecorded.
“The latest incident brings the number of illegal migrants reported dead or missing on the route in 2026 to at least 484,” the agency said.
In mid January, at least 21 bodies of illegal migrants were found in a mass grave in eastern Libya, with up to 10 survivors in the group bearing signs of having been tortured before they were freed from captivity, according to two security sources.
