Overview
- The Italian Coast Guard, which mounted a pre-dawn rescue Wednesday, found 19 people dead about 85 miles from Lampedusa in Libya’s search-and-rescue zone and treated seven others, including two young children, for hypothermia and fuel-fume inhalation.
- Turkish authorities said an inflatable boat sank off Bodrum, leaving 19 Afghan migrants dead including a baby, with 20 survivors after one rescued person died in hospital.
- Off Gravelines in the English Channel, French maritime officials reported two deaths during a small-boat attempt to cross to the UK as search crews continued to sweep the area.
- ANSA reported high winds, rain and temperatures near 10°C during the Lampedusa operation, conditions that can trigger rapid hypothermia on crowded boats that also fill with fuel smoke.
- Frontex says deaths more than doubled in the first two months of 2026, and the IOM tallies at least 624 dead or missing in the central Mediterranean and 831 across the wider sea so far this year.