A least 606 people trying to reach Europe in search of refugee have been reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2026, marking the “deadliest start to a year” in more than a decade, the UN’s migration agency said on Monday.
The figure includes at least 30 people who are feared dead or missing after their boat capsized in severe weather off the coast of Greece on Saturday. Authorities rescued 20 people, including four minors, and recovered the bodies of three men and one woman, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said.
The boat had left Tobruk, Libya, on 19 February and overturned about 20 nautical miles (37km) south of Kali Limenes, Crete.
“This marks the deadliest start to a year in the Mediterranean since IOM began recording such data in 2014,” the agency said, adding that it was “calling for increased search and rescue efforts in the central Mediterranean to save lives and ensure safe disembarkation, as well as for stronger regional cooperation”.
In Italy, the bodies of 15 people – believed to have been among the hundreds who drowned while making the treacherous crossing from north African during violent storms in January – have washed up on beaches in Calabria and Sicily over the past week.
Students found the body of a man wearing an orange life jacket near Tropea, a popular Calabrian seaside town. The body of a woman was found in the same area. Bodies have also been discovered on the small Sicilian island of Pantellaria.
Bishops in Calabria and Sicily attacked migration policies on Sunday, saying the drownings were not isolated tragedies but the result of “inhumane political choices”.
“We must stop measuring success by counting only those who arrive, while not considering those who die,” they said.
Their condemnation comes a week after Italy’s far-right government approved a bill authorising naval blockades to stop boats from arriving during periods of “exceptional pressure”.
It was the latest step in a crackdown on irregular immigration by Giorgia Meloni’s government, which has included tough measures against charity rescue ships, harsher jail terms for human smugglers and schemes intended to swiftly repatriate people.
The bill came after the European parliament approved changes to EU asylum rules in response to pressure from member states, including Italy, for a harsher approach. Meloni said her government would deploy every tool at its disposal to “guarantee the security of our borders”.
According to figures from Italy’s interior ministry, 66,296 people arrived by boat on Italian coastlines in 2025, slightly fewer than in the previous year and about half the figure for 2023, when Italyenacted and reinforced deals with Libya and Tunisia to stem the number of arrivals.
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