Bodies continue to wash ashore, abandoned tents dot coastlines, and desperate relatives are left waiting for phone calls that never come, as migrants attempting to reach Europe disappear in growing numbers.
These incidents, often described as “invisible shipwrecks,” are becoming more frequent, with authorities accused of withholding crucial information about search and rescue operations.
The early months of 2026 have marked the deadliest start to a year for Mediterranean crossings.
According to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, at least 682 people had been confirmed missing by March 16.
However, experts warn that the actual number of deaths is likely far higher due to limited data and reporting challenges.
Efforts by human rights organizations to document the scale of the crisis are increasingly being hindered.
Governments in Italy, Tunisia, and Malta have imposed quiet restrictions on information related to maritime rescues and shipwrecks along what remains the world’s most dangerous migration route.
This lack of transparency has also limited media coverage, as journalists struggle to independently verify incidents.
“It’s a strategy of silence,” said Matteo Villa, a researcher focusing on migration and data at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies think tank.
Advocacy groups, including Refugees in Libya, have raised concerns since late January, claiming that more than 1,000 people went missing following the impact of Cyclone Harry in the region. Despite these alarming figures, authorities have neither confirmed nor disputed the reports.
In the aftermath of the cyclone, grim discoveries have been made. More than 20 decomposing bodies were recovered along the coasts of Italy and Libya, while additional human remains were sighted drifting at sea.
Families of those who disappeared are left in agonizing uncertainty, with no confirmation of whether their loved ones survived. “Europe should know that these people who got drowned in the sea have family members, have dreams, have passions,” Josephus Thomas, a migrant from Sierra Leone and community leader in Tunisia’s coastal town of El Amra, told AP.
Even the U.N.’s migration agency has acknowledged growing difficulty in verifying deaths linked to these so-called “invisible shipwrecks,” citing reduced access to reliable information. Julia Black, who heads the agency’s Missing Migrants Project, noted that at least 1,500 people last year were reported missing without confirmation of their fate, a trend that has continued into 2026.
“We started a new secondary data set of what we are calling unverifiable cases because it’s just become so many,” Black said. For this year, they already have more than 400 missing they could not verify.
Humanitarian organizations, which once helped bridge information gaps, are now constrained by funding cuts and tighter government controls across the region. These limitations have further complicated efforts to track migrant movements and fatalities.
“We’ve seen the restriction of access for humanitarian actors, which is not right. And now we’re seeing even the restriction of information,” Black said.
Repeated inquiries by The Associated Press to authorities in Tunisia, Italy, and Malta regarding their policies on sharing rescue data went unanswered, reinforcing concerns about a growing lack of accountability.
While official communication on migrant activity in the Mediterranean has been declining for years, the silence became more pronounced following Cyclone Harry. The storm brought intense rainfall, powerful winds reaching 100 kph (62 mph), and waves as high as 9 meters (30 feet), worsening already perilous conditions at sea.
During this period, hundreds of migrants reportedly departed from Tunisia’s coastal region of Sfax and vanished without a trace, based on accounts gathered by Refugees in Libya from survivors and relatives. The absence of official confirmation has left yet another chapter of the crisis unresolved.
