606 dead and missing in the Mediterranean – the highest number to start a year in a decade.Image: watson/keystone/getty
The first two months of 2026 were the deadliest on refugee routes across the Mediterranean in more than a decade, the International Organization for Migration reports. There is no improvement in sight.
02/25/2026, 06:0902/25/2026, 06:09
606 people who made the dangerous attempt to reach Europe since the beginning of the year have died in the Mediterranean or are missing. The UN Organization for Migration (IOM) on Monday called this the “deadliest start to a year” in a decade. The hope that missing people will be found at sea is vanishingly small. Between 2014 and 2019 are estimated 17,900 people drowned in the Mediterraneanaround 12,000 of which were never found.
Last Saturday kboarded a boat off the coast of Greece. The approximately 50 passengers on the boat tried to reach the European border from the Libyan city of Tobruk. But before they could reach the island of Crete, the boat was hit by a strong sea storm. 20 passengers were rescued, but 30 others are considered dead or missing. The map shows all known events in the Mediterranean that the IMO has documented.
View events 2014-2025
According to the authorities, there have been cases on beaches in Sicily and in the southern Italian region of Calabria in the past few days at least 15 dead washed up. Students found the body of a man wearing an orange life jacket near Tropea, a popular coastal town in Calabria. A woman’s body was also discovered in the same area. Bodies were also found on the small Sicilian island of Pantelleria. In fact, in the first two months of this year, the IOM already counted almost a third of the dead and missing from all of last year.
Bishops from Calabria and Sicily then sharply criticized Italy’s migration policy. “These are not isolated tragedies, silence is complicity,” the clergy told the Italian newspaper “La Republic”. The deaths on the Mediterranean are a result of “inhumane political decisions”.
The harsh verdict from Sicily comes a week after the right-wing Italian government passed a new law during times of “extraordinary pressure” Naval blockades permittedto prevent boats from landing in Italy. The project envisages that migrants on board ships on the Mediterranean can be stopped off Italian territorial waters so that they can then be deported to the deportation camps in Albania planned by Italy.
The draft law came after the EU Parliament gave in to pressure from some member states, such as Italy, for tougher action. Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her government would use all the means at its disposal to “ensure the security of our borders.” The EU is thus further tightening its already restrictive migration policy, with the declared aim of curbing crossings.
The Meloni government managed to conclude deals with Libya and Tunisia in 2023, which were able to temporarily curb the number of migrants landing in Italy. Since then the numbers have risen sharply again. But compared to 2023, people are dying significantly more often today while trying to cross the Mediterranean.
In the spring of 2023, 20,381 people undertook one of the Mediterranean routes; comparatively, “only” 318 people were killed or are considered missing. In 2026, 6,710 people attempted the crossing, of which a full 606 people are considered dead or missing – almost nine percent. There is much to suggest that Europe’s restrictive migration policy is not reducing the number of people fleeing across the Mediterranean, but is, above all, leading to more dangerous routes and more dead and missing people.