A rubber boat carrying 55 migrants and refugees capsized off Libya's coast on February 6, 2026, leaving 53 people dead or missing, including two babies, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM). The overcrowded vessel departed from Zawiya, west of Tripoli, around 11 p.m., taking on water just six hours later north of Zuwara amid harsh winter seas.
Libyan authorities rescued the only two survivors—Nigerian women—who received emergency medical aid from IOM teams. One reported losing her husband; the other, both her infants. The passengers hailed from various African countries fleeing conflict and poverty, risking the central Mediterranean route notorious for smugglers packing unseaworthy boats.
This tragedy raises 2026's toll to nearly 500 dead or missing from Libya departures, with January alone claiming 375 amid "invisible" wrecks in brutal weather—likely undercounted. Libya remains a key transit hub since Gaddafi's 2011 fall, rife with trafficking, torture in detention sites, and militia abuses. IOM renewed calls for global action to curb smuggling networks, establish legal migration paths, and end returns to unsafe Libya, where 781 have been intercepted this year.
