More than 180 people are feared dead or missing in shipwrecks in the Mediterranean since 28 March, the United Nations said on Tuesday, with nearly 1,000 deaths tallied since the start of 2026.
The UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said that so far this year, around 765 people had died in the Central Mediterranean, an increase of over 150% compared with the same period last year.
And “across the Mediterranean as a whole, at least 990 deaths have been recorded in 2026,” the IOM said, adding that it was “one of the deadliest starts to a year since 2014,” when it began collecting this data.
The agency said that since 28 March alone, at least 181 people had died or gone missing in five separate shipwrecks.
In the latest incident on Sunday, the agency said more than 80 migrants had gone missing when their boat capsized in the Central Mediterranean after departing from Tajoura in Libya, with around 120 people on board.
“The vessel took on water in rough weather before overturning,” the IOM said.
Thirty-two survivors were rescued by a merchant vessel and a tugboat and later brought to Lampedusa by the Italian coastguard, it said, adding that two bodies had been recovered.
In an earlier shipwreck on 1 April, at least 19 migrants were found dead aboard a vessel off Lampedusa, the agency said, adding that 58 people, including women and children, had been rescued, with several in critical condition.
Survivors said that boat had left Zuara in Libya overnight between 28-29 March.
“After three days at sea, the vessel was left adrift due to engine failure, fuel shortages and lack of food as weather conditions deteriorated,” the IOM said, adding that initial testimonies indicated “many victims died before rescue operations, possibly due to hypothermia.”
Also on 1 April, at least 19 other migrants died in the Aegean Sea near Bodrum in Turkey, after a rubber boat capsized en route to Greece, the agency said, adding that “several” people had been rescued.
The IOM also listed a shipwreck on 30 March near Sfax in Tunisia that left 19 dead and around 20 missing, and another on 28 March, in which at least 22 people died off Crete after departing eastern Libya.
“These tragedies show, once again, that far too many people are still risking their lives on dangerous routes,” IOM chief Amy Pope said in the statement.
“Saving lives must come first. But we also need stronger, unified efforts to stop traffickers and smugglers from exploiting vulnerable people, and to expand safe and regular pathways so no one is ever forced into these deadly journeys.”
The IOM has previously highlighted the central Mediterranean as the deadliest migration corridor in the world.
Between 2014 and the end of 2025, more than 33,000 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean, according to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.
Additional sources • AFP
