The International Organization for Migration reports at least 990 deaths in the Mediterranean Sea so far in 2026, making it one of the deadliest starts to a year since 2014. Over 180 additional people are feared dead or missing from shipwrecks in the past two weeks alone.

The numbers follow a pattern that has repeated annually for over a decade: people attempting to reach Europe by sea, boats that are overcrowded and unseaworthy, crossings attempted in dangerous conditions, and a response infrastructure that remains inadequate to the scale of the movement.