Tripoli: At least four people have died after two boats carrying nearly 100 migrants capsized off the coast of Libya, rescue workers have reported. Those confirmed to have died by the Libyan Red Crescent were all passengers in a boat carrying 26 Bangladeshi nationals.
According to BBC, the humanitarian group did not disclose whether there were further fatalities among passengers in a second boat, which sank while carrying around 70 mostly Sudanese individuals. The boats were navigating the central Mediterranean route between North Africa and Italy, identified as the "deadliest known migration route in the world" by the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The boats embarked from Al Khums, a port city in northwestern Libya, as stated by the organization. The Libyan Red Crescent shared images depicting its crew administering aid to survivors, alongside black body bags lying on the ground.
Hundreds of people perish yearly attempting to cross to southern Europe in overcrowded and unsafe vessels. In 2025 so far, more than 1,500 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean, according to IOM data. About a third of these incidents occurred off the Libyan coast.
Libya served as the departure point for the majority of the nearly 59,000 people who arrived in Europe this year via the central Mediterranean route, based on information from Frontex, the European Union's border security agency.
Earlier this week, dozens of migrants who set off from Libya were missing and presumed dead after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean. Seven survivors from Sudan, Somalia, Cameroon, and Nigeria were rescued after being adrift at sea for nearly a week.