A rubber dinghy carrying 55 passengers, including two babies, capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving 53 people dead, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has reported. The only survivors were two Nigerian women, who were rescued by Libyan authorities on Friday and received emergency medical care.
The boat, carrying migrants and refugees from several African countries, sank about six hours after departing from the coastal city of al-Zawiya, northwest of Tripoli. Survivors told IOM the vessel overturned in the early hours of Friday north of Zuwara. One survivor lost her husband, while the other reported the death of her two infants.
So far in 2026, nearly 500 migrants have been reported dead or missing attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya. In January alone, at least 375 people were reported dead or missing due to “invisible” shipwrecks caused by extreme winter weather, with the true toll likely higher.
Libya has long served as a transit point for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa seeking to reach Europe, particularly after the fall of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Conditions for migrants inside Libya are widely documented as dire, with reports of torture, trafficking, forced labour, and extortion by both state actors and militia groups.
The IOM said traffickers and smuggling networks exploit migrants by forcing them onto overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels, contributing to the rising death toll. Many shipwrecks go unreported, leaving families uncertain about the fate of their loved ones.
The agency urged international cooperation to dismantle smuggling networks and establish safe, legal migration pathways to prevent further deaths at sea. Several countries, including the UK, Spain, Norway, and Sierra Leone, have called on Libya to close detention centres where human rights violations against migrants have been documented.
