Libya Boat Tragedy: 42 Migrants Missing Presumed Dead After Capsize, Only Seven Survive, Confirms UN

On Wednesday, November 12, the United Nations announced that 42 migrants lost at sea were missing and were assumed dead following the capsizing of a rubber boat that was off the coast of Libya, only seven people were rescued after six days without land.

The U.N. International Organization of Migration in a statement said that 42 people are missing, and they are assumed to have died, 29 of them were Sudanese, eight Somali, three Cameroon, and two Nigerian.

Migrant Crisis Deepens

These seven rescued survivors were four Sudanese, two Nigerians and a Cameroonian person, the statement further added.

Libya, which is split in half after a civil conflict erupted in 2011 following the removal of long-time dictator Muammar Qaddafi, has turned into a massive disembarkation point of migrants of all of Africa and the Middle East attempting to reach Europe in the small boats. As of the end of October, the U.N. IOM stated that 527 individuals had been killed on the coast of Libya since the onset of 2025 alone.

Only 7 Survive Libya Boat Capsize

There is a threat of a migrant boat capsizing off the Libyan coast. 

In this handout image, a Red Crescent member is standing next to a body bag at a place that is described as being near Surman, Libya, following the loss of a migrant boat off of the West of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, on October 28, 2025.

Although the State department advises American nationals to avoid lawlessness in Libya because of the crime, terrorism, and unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict, the Trump administration has earlier this year discussed with the U.N.-backed government that controls the western part of the country, located in the capital of Tripoli, the issue of deporting American migrants to the African state.

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