In the latest migrant tragedy, 61 migrants are missing and presumed dead after their boat sank off Libya’s shores, the UN International Organization for Migrants (IOM) has reported.

Citing survivors, the IOM said the migrants embarked from Zuwara on Libya’s north-west coast, with around 86 passengers on board.

The central Mediterranean continues to be “one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes,” IOM wrote on X when it announced the shipwreck. 

IOM spokesperson Flavio Di Giacomo wrote on X that more than 2,250 people have died this year on the central Mediterranean migrant route, calling it a “dramatic figure which demonstrates that unfortunately not enough is being done to save lives at sea.”

The agency said the victims, who included women and children, were from Nigeria, the Gambia, and other African countries, AFP reported.

In February of this year, at least 73 migrants were reported dead or missing in another tragedy off the Libyan coast, when they departed from Qasr Alkayar heading to Europe.

In June, at least 78 people died and around 100 rescued after a fishing boat, en route from Libya to Italy and loaded with 750 people, crashed off the southern shores of Greece. 

Around 29,000 migrants have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean since 2014, according to IOM data. 

Most migrants embark from North Africa, aiming to reach European countries such as Italy, setting off in boats from Libya, Egypt, Algeria, and increasingly Tunisia. According to IOM estimates, Tunisian nationals comprised over 60% of central Mediterranean crossings in 2020.

In 2023, approximately over 245,000 individuals reached Europe through sea crossings, according to IOM.

Amid these developments, anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe seems to be on the rise, with the election of right-wing leaders such as Giorgia Meloni in Italy and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands.

The Italian government introduced a deal in November to process and contain migrants in Albania, a non-EU country, which raised doubts around the ethics and legality of such a program.