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Geneva - The United Nations migration bureau said Monday that 53 radical were dormant oregon missing aft a vessel capsized successful the Mediterranean Sea disconnected the Libyan coast. Only 2 survivors were rescued.
The International Organization for Migration said the vessel overturned Friday northbound of Zuwara, a metropolis connected the northwest seashore of Libya that's astir 180 miles from the Italian land of Lampedusa, which galore migrants effort to scope by vessel from the African coastline.
"Only 2 Nigerian women were rescued during a search-and-rescue cognition by Libyan authorities," the IOM said successful a statement, adding that 1 of the survivors said she mislaid her hubby and the different said "she mislaid her 2 babies successful the tragedy."
The IOM said its teams provided the 2 survivors with exigency aesculapian attraction upon disembarkation.
"According to subsister accounts, the vessel — carrying migrants and refugees of African nationalities departed from Al-Zawiya, Libya, astatine astir 11:00 p.m. connected February 5. Approximately six hours later, it capsized aft taking connected water," the bureau said. "IOM mourns the nonaccomplishment of beingness successful yet different deadly incidental on the Central Mediterranean route."
A record photograph shows a vessel carrying astir 130 migrants, including 18 women and 6 girls, from respective African nations, which departed from Libya connected Aug. 26, 2025, attempting to scope Europe, arsenic unit aboard the4 rescue vessel Astral, operated by the NGO Open Arms, approaches to administer beingness jackets and h2o to those connected board.
Joan Galvez/Anadolu/Getty
The Geneva-based bureau said trafficking and smuggling networks were exploiting migrants on the way from northbound Africa to confederate Europe, profiting from unsafe crossings successful unseaworthy boats portion exposing radical to "severe abuse."
It called for stronger planetary practice to tackle the networks, alongside harmless and regular migration pathways to trim risks and prevention lives.
According to the IOM, astatine slightest 375 migrants were reported dormant oregon missing pursuing shipwrecks successful the Central Mediterranean successful January alone, with hundreds much deaths believed to person gone unrecorded.
"These repeated incidents underscore the persistent and deadly risks faced by migrants and refugees attempting the unsafe crossing," the U.N. bureau said, adding that implicit 1,300 migrants went missing successful the Central Mediterranean successful 2025 and, this year, already the full arsenic of Monday was astatine slightest 484.
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