Migrant sit on the aft deck of the rescue ship "Ocean Viking" operated by the NGO SOS Mediterranee, as it sails toward a distress case in the search-and-rescue zone in international waters off the coast of Libya, on January 17, 2026. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP)
Hundreds of migrants may be missing at sea or feared dead following reports of multiple deadly shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean in recent days, the U.N.’s migration agency warned on Jan. 26.
The International Organization for Migration said it was “deeply concerned” by the reports, which it is currently verifying. “Several boats are believed to have been involved over the past 10 days, with preliminary information suggesting that hundreds of people may be missing at sea or feared dead,” a statement said.
The agency warned that severe weather was significantly hampering search and rescue operations.
IOM spokesman Jorge Galindo told AFP there had been “three shipwrecks reported on Jan. 23 and 25,” with potentially at least 104 deaths.
The reported wrecks involved boats that were believed to have departed from Tunisia and Libya, according to Merna Abdelazim, a data analyst with the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.While IOM said it was still verifying the information, it said three deaths had been confirmed in Lampedusa, Italy, following a search and rescue operation involving a boat that had left from Sfax in Tunisia.
“Among the victims are twin girls, approximately one year old, who died of hypothermia shortly before disembarkation,” the statement said, adding that a man had also died of hypothermia.
And survivors from the same operation had reported that another boat that departed from the same location at the same time as theirs had never arrived.
The agency was also investigating reports of nine missing boats that had departed Tunisia between Jan. 14 and 21, with 380 people onboard.
“In just the first weeks of 2026, hundreds of people are already feared to be missing,” the IOM statement said.
