Italy, Tunisia and Malta are withholding information about the true death toll from stricken vessels carrying migrants in the central Mediterranean, according to an AP report. The beginning of 2026 has been the deadliest start to a year in the Mediterranean since the UN began keeping track in 2014, with nearly 700 lives lost to date. But phone calls from people looking for missing relatives, bodies washing ashore, and other clues suggest there have been numerous “invisible” shipwrecks, and the true toll is significantly higher. (TNH)
Photo: US Navy via Wikimedia Commons
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Mediterranean death toll keeps rising
Over 80 people are believed to have drowned following yet another migration-related shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea on April 7. This one took place off of Libya’s northwestern coast. Two merchant boats rescued 32 survivors. Nearly 1,000 people have died in migration-related shipwrecks already this year in the Mediterranean—a spiralling toll even before the onset of summer, when departures and deaths usually both increase. (TNH)
Worldwide migrant death toll rises
Nearly 8,000 people are known to have died or disappeared on migration routes around the world in 2025, according to a new report from the UN’s migration agency, IOM. The true number is undoubtedly higher, as many deaths are never recorded. Over 40% of recorded fatalities were on sea routes to Europe. This year is off to a particularly deadly start in the Mediterranean, where more than 1,000 people have already died. (TNH)
Libyan Coast Guard fires on a civilian rescue vessel
The EU-supported Libyan Coast Guard opened fire on a civilian search and rescue vessel operated by the NGO Sea-Watch on May 11. The boat had just rescued around 90 people when the coast guard fired 10-15 shots at the rescue vessel and threatened to board it and take it to Libya, according to Sea-Watch. This is not the first time the Libyan Coast Guard has attacked an NGO search and rescue vessel. (TNH)