At least four people died after two boats carrying nearly 100 migrants capsized off the coast of Libya on Saturday, rescue workers said.
The deaths confirmed so far by the Libyan Red Crescent were all passengers on a boat carrying 26 Bangladeshi nationals.
The humanitarian group did not say whether there were more deaths among passengers on a second boat that sank while carrying about 70 people, mostly Sudanese.
The ships were using the central Mediterranean route between North Africa and Italy, which is the “deadliest known migration route in the world,” according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The ships departed from Al Khums, a port city in northwestern Libya, the organization said.
The Libyan Red Crescent shared images of its crew administering aid to survivors, as well as black body bags lying on the ground.
Hundreds of people die each year trying to cross into southern Europe in overcrowded and unsafe boats.
More than 1,500 people have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean so far in 2025, according to IOM data. About a third of those cases occurred off the coast of Libya.
The North African nation was the departure point for most 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 who boarded a small boat in Libya were missing and presumed dead after it capsized in the Mediterranean.
Seven survivors – from Sudan, Somalia, Cameroon and Nigeria – were rescued after being lost at sea for almost a week.
