Italian Coast Guards officers carry a body bag on the dock of Lampedusa harbor Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, after a boat carrying nearly 100 migrants capsized off the Italian island.
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A boat carrying nearly 100 migrants has capsized in international waters off the Italian island of Lampedusa, killing at least 27 people and leaving around another dozen missing, the Italian coast guard and UN agencies said.
Sixty survivors were brought to a centre in Lampedusa, said Filippo Ungaro, a UNHCR spokesman in Italy.
There were 92 to 97 migrants on board when the boat departed Libya, according to survivor accounts.
Authorities were still searching for any remaining survivors.
At least 27 people are thought to have died, but the Coast Guard said the figure was still “provisional and being updated”.
Italian Coast Guards officers carry a body bag on the dock of Lampedusa harbor.
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Alamy
Based on survivor accounts, about 95 migrants left Libya on two boats, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) spokesperson Flavio Di Giacomo said.
When one of the two vessels started to take on water, all the passengers were transferred to the other boat – made of fibreglass – which then capsized because of overloading, he said.
It was not immediately known how long the migrants had been at sea.
Lampedusa mayor Filippo Mannino said the shipwreck happened “presumably at dawn”.
According to the UNHCR, 675 migrants have died making the perilous central Mediterranean crossing so far this year, not counting the latest sinking.
“Deep anguish over yet another shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa, where UNHCR is now assisting the survivors,” Mr Ungaro wrote on social media site X.
At least 27 people have drowned in a tragic shipwreck near #Lampedusa. Over 700 refugees and migrants have now died in 2025 in the Central Mediterranean. All responses — rescue at sea, safe pathways, helping transit countries and addressing root causes — must be strengthened.
— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) August 13, 2025
According to the UNHCR, in the first six months of 2025, 30,060 refugees and migrants arrived in Italy by sea, a 16% increase compared with the same period last year.
The migration route from northern Africa to southern Europe is considered one of the most dangerous in the world, with almost 24,500 people dying or disappearing on the Mediterranean crossing in the past 10 years, according to the IOM.
Most of the deaths have been attributed to small boats setting off from the coasts of Tunisia and Libya.
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The deadliest shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa occurred on October 3 2013, when a boat carrying more than 500 migrants from Eritrea, Somalia and Ghana caught fire and capsized, killing at least 368 people.
The tragedy prompted international calls for action to address the crisis.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni – who made combating illegal immigration a top priority of her right-wing government – pledged on Wednesday to continue fighting “unscrupulous traffickers” by preventing irregular departures and managing migration flows.
“That today’s tragedy occurred despite a ready and operational international response warns us that the necessary rescue effort is not sufficient and, above all, does not address the root causes of this tragic problem,” Ms Meloni said in a statement.