Boat carrying refugees sinks, killing at least 50 people
A boat carrying Sudanese refugees caught fire and sank over the weekend off Libya’s coast, killing at least 50 people as it headed toward Greece, the International Organization for Migration said Thursday.
The boat sank on Sunday about 60 kilometers (about 40 miles) off the coast of the eastern Libyan city of Tobruk, the U.N. migration agency said. The agency had said earlier that the boat was carrying 75 Sudanese refugees when it sank and that only 24 survivors had been rescued.
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The Libyan Red Crescent said Monday that it had recovered bodies from the coast about 60 kilometers (about 40 miles) west of Tobruk and about 90 kilometers (60 miles) east of the city, but it was unclear if they were those of the Sudanese migrants. The humanitarian organization didn’t provide further details.
In a separate incident, authorities in the western Libya coastal city of Zuwara said they rescued 35 migrants, including five women and a child, from a boat off the coast on Tuesday.
Libya has been a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.
Earlier this month, a migrant boat capsized off Libya’s coast, leaving one dead and 22 missing, Libyan authorities said. In December, at least 61 migrants, including women and children, drowned off the coast of western Libya.
According to the Missing Migrants Project run by the IOM, at least 434 migrants have been reported dead and 611 missing off Libya in the past eight months.
Libya was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocratic leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
Libya deports Sudanese nationals
Eastern Libyan authorities have sent hundreds of Sudanese back to their war-torn home country, officials said in July 2025, in a crackdown on migrants seeking to flee conflict and poverty for Europe by way of the the Mediterranean nation.
Seven hundred Sudanese who were detained recently in central and southeastern Libya, were deported Friday by land to Sudan, the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration in eastern Libya said in a statement.
The statement said some of the deportees suffered from infectious diseases including hepatitis and AIDS. Others were deported because of either criminal convictions or “security reasons,” it said, without elaborating.
The deportation was part of an ongoing crackdown campaign on migrant trafficking in eastern Libya, which is controlled by forces of powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter.
Last week, the coast guard in eastern Libya said it intercepted a boat carrying 80 Europe-bound migrants off the eastern city of Tobruk.
The campaign includes raids on trafficking hubs across eastern and southern Libya. A raid earlier this month freed 104 Sudanese migrants, including women and children, who were held in a trafficking warehouse in the town of Ajdabiya, about 480 miles (800 kilometers) east of the capital, Tripoli, according to town security authorities.
