More than 500 deaths in 40 days. From January 1 to February 10, at least 524 migrants died or went missing across all routes in the Mediterranean, swallowed up along with their makeshift vessels as they tried to reach Europe from the North African coast, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). This is a chilling tally – and an unprecedented one at this point in the year since 2014, when the IOM began recording deaths at sea.

The most recent known tragedy occurred on February 6: Fifty-three people died or went missing after a vessel carrying 55 migrants capsized off the Libyan coast. “This is the worst start to a year we have seen in over a decade,” an IOM spokesperson told Le Monde. “Also the deadliest.”

By comparison, 219 people (out of an annual total of 1,873) lost their lives over the same period in 2025; 416 in 2016, which remains to this day the deadliest year, with 5,136 people missing. In recent weeks, shipwrecks have multiplied in the Mediterranean at a pace described as “frightening” by Marino Dubois, the pseudonym of a retired French woman who, through her Facebook page – “Marino Dubois officiels 2,” which has more than 129,000 followers – painstakingly tracks crossings, tragedies and informs African migrants about sea weather conditions.

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