Overview

• Italian coastguard and UN agencies put the provisional death toll at 26 with around a dozen migrants still unaccounted for.
• Approximately 60 people—56 men and four women—were rescued and brought to Lampedusa, with four survivors hospitalized for health checks.
• Survivor accounts indicate two vessels left Libya carrying about 92 to 97 migrants; when one began taking on water, passengers were moved aboard the other and it capsized due to overloading.
• A helicopter from Italy’s financial police first spotted the overturned boat and bodies about 14 nautical miles south of Lampedusa, triggering a multi-agency search, rescue and recovery operation.
• The latest sinking adds to the 675 deaths recorded so far this year on the central Mediterranean migration route, highlighting ongoing debates over prevention, border control and humanitarian protection.