42 feared dead in migrant shipwreck off Libya: UN

GENEVA, Switzerland: The United Nations said Wednesday that 42 migrants were missing presumed dead after a rubber boat capsized off the Libyan coast last week.

It was the latest in a series of similar disasters in a stretch of the Mediterranean Sea that has claimed the lives of more than a thousand people so far this year.

Only seven survivors were rescued after six days adrift, said a statement from the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

The vessel, carrying 47 men and two women, left Zuwara, west of Tripoli, on November 3, but around six hours later, high waves caused the engine to fail, said the IOM.

The boat capsized, throwing all passengers overboard, the statement added.

On Saturday, the Libyan authorities carried out a search and rescue operation near Al Buri oil field.

“After drifting at sea for six days, only seven men — four from Sudan, two from Nigeria, and one from Cameroon — were rescued,” the IOM said.

“Tragically, 42 individuals remain missing and are presumed dead, including 29 from Sudan, eight from Somalia, three from Cameroon, and two from Nigeria.”

IOM staff gave the survivors emergency medical care, food and water once they were brought ashore.

Death toll

More than 1,000 migrants have died this year attempting the main central Mediterranean crossing between North Africa and southern Europe, according to IOM figures.

“With this latest shipwreck, the total has risen even further, reinforcing the urgent need for strengthened regional cooperation, expanded safe and regular migration pathways, and more effective search and rescue operations to prevent further loss of life,” the IOM said.

A European Commission spokesperson told AFP: “These tragic events once again underline the need to intensify joint efforts with our partners, including Libya, to prevent such dangerous journeys and to combat the criminal networks of migrant smugglers that put lives at risk.”

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, estimates that over 1,700 people have died or are missing on the wider Mediterranean and West Africa Atlantic migration routes this year.

In total, around 33,000 migrants are considered dead and missing in the Mediterranean since the start of 2014, according to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.

MSF relaunches rescue missions

The medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced Tuesday it was relaunching its search and rescue activities in the central Mediterranean, having halted them in December 2024.

Its new vessel, Oyvon, was previously an ambulance ship in Norway.

“We have returned to carry out the duty of rescue for those who find themselves in distress at sea, forced to take unseaworthy boats, after having endured deplorable and inhumane conditions, detention, abuse and extortion in Libya,” said Juan Matias Gil, MSF’s search and rescue representative.

MSF said the switch to a smaller, faster vessel was in response to what it called Italy’s “restrictive” practices towards its previous, larger rescue vessel.

MSF said the crew included a doctor and a nurse able to treat people for hypothermia, fuel inhalation, fuel burns, as well as wounds sustained in the “cycle of abuse and detention” in Libya.