CAIRO (AP) — More than 80 migrants went missing after a boat that departed a Libyan coastal town capsized in the central Mediterranean, the U.N. migration agency said Tuesday. The bodies of at least two of them have been recovered.
About 120 people were on board when the boat departed from the town of Tajoura in northwestern Libya on Sunday. The vessel later overturned after taking on water during harsh weather conditions, according to the International Organization for Migration, or IOM.
A merchant vessel and a tugboat managed to save 32 people and the Italian coast guard transferred them to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa. Two bodies were also recovered, authorities said.
Libya has been a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The country plunged into chaos after a 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
The Sunday incident comes around a week after the Italian coast guard found 19 bodies and rescued 58 people when intercepting a dinghy filled with migrants about 80 nautical miles from Lampedusa. The rescue took place with the Italian coast guard operating in the Libyan search and rescue zone during rough weather conditions.
The tiny island of Lampedusa is the main entry point to Europe for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa, with thousands dying during the perilous journey. Most of the deaths have been attributed to small boats setting off from the coasts of Tunisia and Libya.
The IOM said Tuesday that the start of 2026 has been the deadliest start to a year for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea since 2014, with at least 990 deaths recorded so far this year. Meanwhile, in the Central Mediterranean alone, 765 people have died in 2026, marking about a 150% increase compared with the same period last year.
IOM Director General Amy Pope told The Associated Press earlier this month that the agency is seeing a growing number of migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sudan on boats in the Mediterranean.
“The issue of people crossing the Mediterranean is really dependent on what else is happening in the world and the factors at the moment, war, instability, lack of access to food, sexual violence, all of these things will drive people to move,” she said.