BOAT CARRYING MIGRANTS CAPSIZES NEAR ITALY, AT LEAST 26 DEAD. (PHOTO).

 Boat carrying migrants capsizes near Italy, at least 26 dead

A boat carrying nearly 100 migrants capsized Wednesday in international waters near the Italian island of Lampedusa, leaving at least 26 dead and about a dozen missing, Italian coast guard officials and U.N. agencies reported.

Sixty survivors were rescued and taken to a center on Lampedusa, according to Filippo Ungaro, a spokesperson for the UNHCR in Italy. Survivor accounts indicate that between 92 and 97 people had been aboard the vessel when it departed Libya. Authorities continue searching for any remaining survivors.

The coast guard said the death toll of 26 is still “provisional and being updated.” According to Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration, roughly 95 migrants left Libya on two boats. When one vessel began taking on water, passengers were moved to a fiberglass boat, which subsequently capsized due to overloading.

It is not yet clear how long the migrants had been at sea. Lampedusa Mayor Filippo Mannino said the shipwreck likely occurred around dawn.

This year alone, 675 migrants have died attempting the central Mediterranean crossing, not including this latest sinking, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Ungaro expressed deep sorrow over the disaster, noting that UNHCR is assisting the survivors.

In the first half of 2025, 30,060 refugees and migrants arrived in Italy by sea, a 16% increase from the same period last year, UNHCR data shows. The route from North Africa to southern Europe is considered one of the world’s most dangerous, with nearly 24,500 people dying or disappearing on the Mediterranean crossing over the past decade. Most deaths have involved small boats departing from Tunisia and Libya.

The deadliest Lampedusa shipwreck occurred on Oct. 3, 2013, when a vessel carrying more than 500 migrants from Eritrea, Somalia, and Ghana caught fire and capsized, killing at least 368 people, sparking international calls to address the crisis.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose right-wing government has made combating illegal immigration a top priority, pledged Wednesday to continue efforts against human traffickers while managing migration flows. She added that the tragedy demonstrates that even an operational international response is insufficient and does not address the root causes of the crisis.