UN fears hundreds of migrants missing or dead in Med shipwrecks since start of 2026

"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 January 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 January 14 and 21, with a total of around 380 people onboard, he said. 

- 'Another major tragedy' -

"In just the first weeks of 2026, hundreds of people are already feared to be missing," the IOM statement said, warning that "the final toll may be significantly higher".

"While IOM is still seeking official confirmation, the scale of the reported fatalities points to yet another major tragedy in the Central Mediterranean," the agency said.

The incidents, which occurred as Cyclone Harry hit the Mediterranean, "once again underscore the lethal consequences of migrant smuggling and trafficking networks that continue to operate with impunity, deliberately sending people to sea on unseaworthy and overcrowded boats", the agency said.

"Smuggling migrants on unseaworthy and overcrowded boats is a criminal act," it stressed.

"Arranging departures while a severe storm was hitting the region makes this conduct even more reprehensible, as people were knowingly sent to sea under conditions amounting to a near-certain risk of death," it added. 

The latest incidents, it said, "highlight the urgent need for the international community to intensify efforts to dismantle these criminal networks and prevent further loss of life".

The IOM highlighted that the Central Mediterranean remains the deadliest migration corridor in the world, with at least 1,340 people losing their lives there last year alone. 

Between 2014 and the end of 2025, more than 33,000 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean, according to the IOM's Missing Migrants Project.

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