Tripoli: At least four people have died after two boats carrying nearly 100 migrants capsized off the coast of Libya, rescue workers have reported. Those confirmed to have died by the Libyan Red Crescent were passengers in a boat carrying 26 Bangladeshi nationals.

According to BBC, the humanitarian group did not disclose whether there were further fatalities among passengers in a second boat, which sank while carrying approximately 70 mostly Sudanese individuals. The boats were navigating the central Mediterranean route between North Africa and Italy. The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) has identified this as the “deadliest known migration route in the world.”

The boats embarked from Al Khums, a port city in northwestern Libya, as stated by the organization. The Libyan Red Crescent released images depicting its crew providing aid to survivors and black body bags laying on the ground. Each year, hundreds of people die attempting to cross to southern Europe in overcrowded and unsafe boats.

More than 1,500 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean in 2025 so far, based on data from the IOM. About a third of those incidents occurred off Libya’s coast. The North African nation served as the departure point for the majority of the almost 59,000 people who reached Europe this year via the central Mediterranean route, as reported by Frontex, the European Union’s border security agency.

Earlier this week, another tragedy unfolded when dozens of migrants who boarded a small boat in Libya went missing and were presumed dead after it capsized in the Mediterranean. Seven survivors, originating from Sudan, Somalia, Cameroon, and Nigeria, were rescued after being adrift at sea for nearly a week.