At least 70 missing and two bodies recovered after migrant boat capsizes in the Mediterranean

At least 70 missing and two bodies recovered after migrant boat capsizes in the Mediterranean
Reuters

At least 70 people are missing and two bodies have been recovered after a boat carrying migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, an Italian NGO said on Sunday (5 April).

The wooden vessel with 105 people aboard, including children, overturned on Saturday afternoon, Mediterranea Saving Humans said in a post on X.

An aircraft belonging to another NGO, Sea Watch, spotted the overturned boat with 15 people clinging to the hull.

Survivors were rescued with the assistance of nearby merchant ships and disembarked on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday morning. 

Mediterranea Saving Humans said there were 32 survivors from the shipwrecked vessel.

As of February, 606 migrants are recorded as having died trying to cross the Mediterranean, according to the UN-linked International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

In 2025, at least 2,185 people died or went missing in the Mediterranean.

The European Union (EU) has spent €700 million on supporting Libya since 2015, under various funding arrangements.

Despite this, in 2025 there was only a one percent decrease in irregular entries to the EU via the central Mediterranean route, which mainly includes crossings from Libya and Tunisia.

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