'Invisible' shipwrecks hide Mediterranean death toll
Submitted by WW4 Report on Mon, 03/23/2026 - 04:18
Italy, Tunisia and Malta are withholding information about the true death toll from stricken vessels carrying migrants in the central Mediterranean, according to an AP report. The beginning of 2026 has been the deadliest start to a year in the Mediterranean since the UN began keeping track in 2014, with nearly 700 lives lost to date. But phone calls from people looking for missing relatives, bodies washing ashore, and other clues suggest there have been numerous "invisible" shipwrecks, and the true toll is significantly higher. (TNH)
Mediterranean death toll keeps rising
Over 80 people are believed to have drowned following yet another migration-related shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea on April 7. This one took place off of Libya’s northwestern coast. Two merchant boats rescued 32 survivors. Nearly 1,000 people have died in migration-related shipwrecks already this year in the Mediterranean—a spiralling toll even before the onset of summer, when departures and deaths usually both increase. (TNH)