At least four dead after migrant boats sink in Mediterranean

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

Those who the Libyan Red Crescent has confirmed have died so far were all passengers on a boat carrying 26 Bangladeshi citizens.

The humanitarian organization did not say whether there were more deaths among the passengers in the second boat that sank while carrying about 70 people, most of whom were Sudanese.

The boats were using the Central Mediterranean Route between North Africa and Italy, the “deadliest known migration route in the world” according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

The organization said that the boats set off from the coastal city of Al-Khoms in northwestern Libya.

The Libyan Red Crescent published pictures of its crew providing aid to survivors, in addition to black body bags thrown on the ground.

Hundreds of people die every year trying to cross to southern Europe 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 International Organization for Migration. About a third of those cases occurred off the coast of Libya.

The North African country was the departure point for the majority of the nearly 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 boarded a small boat in Libya They were missing and presumed dead after its coup In the Mediterranean Sea.

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