At least four dead after migrant boats sink in Mediterranean

At least four people have died after two boats carrying nearly 100 migrants capsized off the coast of Libya on Saturday, rescue workers have said.

Those confirmed to have died by the Libyan Red Crescent so far were all passengers in a boat carrying 26 Bangladeshi nationals.

The humanitarian group did not say whether there were further fatalities among passengers in a second boat which sank while carrying around 70 mostly Sudanese people.

The boats were using the central Mediterranean route between North Africa and Italy, which is the “deadliest known migration route in the world” according to the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The boats had set off from Al Khums, a port city in northwestern Libya, the organisation said.

The Libyan Red Crescent shared images of its crew administering aid to survivors, as well as black body bags lying on the ground.

Hundreds of people die each year trying to make the crossing to southern Europe each year in overcrowded and unsafe boats.

More than 1,500 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean in 2025 so far, according to data from the IOM. Around a third of those cases happened off Libya’s coast.

The North African nation was the departure point for the majority of the almost 59,000 people who arrived in Europe this year via the central Mediterranean route, according to Frontex, the European Union’s border security agency.

Earlier this week, dozens of migrants who boarded a small boat in Libya were missing and presumed dead after it capsized in the Mediterranean.

Seven survivors – from Sudan, Somalia, Cameroon and Nigeria – were rescued after being lost at sea for nearly a week.