Geneva — The United Nations said Wednesday that 42 migrants were missing and presumed dead after a rubber boat capsized off the Libyan coast, with only seven survivors rescued after six days adrift.
“Tragically, 42 individuals remain missing and are presumed dead, including 29 from Sudan, eight from Somalia, three from Cameroon, and two from Nigeria,” the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said in a statement.
The seven rescued survivors were four people from Sudan, two Nigerians and one person from Cameroon, the statement added.
Libya, divided in two since a civil war broke out in 2011 in the wake of longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s ouster, has become a huge disembarkation point for migrants from across Africa and the Middle East trying to reach Europe on small boats. The U.N.’s IOM said at the end of October that since the beginning of 2025 alone, at least 527 people had died off the coast of Libya.
A member of the Red Crescent stands next to a body bag in a location given as near Surman, Libya, after a migrant boat capsized west of Libya’s capital Tripoli, in this handout image released on Oct. 28, 2025. / Credit: Libyan Red Crescent Society in Sabratha/Handout/REUTERS
Despite lawlessness in Libya, which the State Department urges American nationals to avoid due to “crime, terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict,” the Trump administration was in talks earlier this year with the U.N.-backed government that rules the western portion of the country, based in the capital Tripoli, about the prospect of deporting migrants from the U.S. to the African nation.
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