Rome, Italy. Hundreds of people are feared dead or missing after attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea, with reports of multiple shipwrecks in the last 10 days following bad weather, the UN migration agency said on Monday.
Deaths confirmed in Lampedusa
The International Organization for Migration said three people, including twin girls about one year old, were confirmed dead in Lampedusa after a search-and-rescue operation for a boat that left Sfax, Tunisia. They died of hypothermia, according to their Guinean mother, a survivor, and a man also died from the same cause, the agency said.
Second vessel reported missing
Survivors from the same boat said another vessel departed simultaneously but never arrived, and its fate remains unknown, the IOM said.
Multiple incidents amid Cyclone Harry
The IOM said that over the past 10 days, amid a violent Mediterranean storm triggered by Cyclone Harry, several boats are believed to have gone missing, leaving hundreds unaccounted for. Search efforts have been hampered by poor weather.
Reports near Malta and off Libya
The agency said it is verifying a survivor’s report from another boat, rescued by a commercial vessel near Malta, of a shipwreck in which at least 50 people could be missing or dead. Separately, the IOM said 51 people are feared dead after a wreck off Tobruk, Libya.
IOM condemns smuggling practices
The IOM said smuggling migrants on unseaworthy and overcrowded boats is a criminal act, adding that arranging departures while a severe storm was hitting the region makes the conduct more reprehensible because people were knowingly sent to sea under conditions amounting to a near-certain risk of death.
2025 toll in the Central Mediterranean
In 2025, at least 1,340 people died in the Central Mediterranean, according to the agency’s figures.
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