The bodies of five asylum seekers washed up on a Libyan beach, and three people died in another accident off the coast of Greece.
Libyan police recovered the bodies of five asylum seekers washed up on a beach near the capital Tripoli, after Greek authorities said three people had died in another incident off the coast of Crete.
The body was discovered by residents of the Libyan coastal town of Qasr al-Akhyar on Saturday, according to police.
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Hassan Al-Ghawil, head of the investigation at Qasr Al-Akhyar police station, told Reuters the bodies were all people with dark skin. Two of them were women.
He said people in the area saw the child’s body washed ashore before the waves returned to the sea.
“We reported to the Red Crescent to retrieve the bodies,” Ghawil said. “The body we found was still intact and we believe there may be more bodies washed up on the beach.”
The tragedy comes weeks after the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said some 53 migrants, including two babies, were dead or missing after a rubber boat carrying 55 people capsized off the coast of the town of Zuwara, west of Tripoli.
It also comes as Greek authorities respond to a separate incident in the eastern Mediterranean.
Authorities recovered three bodies and rescued at least 20 people after a wooden boat carrying migrants and asylum seekers capsized off the coast of Crete on Saturday, the Athens News Agency reported.
Most of the survivors were Egyptian and Sudanese, the agency said. Among them were four minors.
According to Greek public broadcaster ERT, the wooden boat capsized while passengers were trying to climb a ladder while a merchant ship was conducting rescue operations.
A Greek coast guard spokesman told AFP that the search for survivors was continuing with four patrol boats, an aircraft and two ships from the European border agency Frontex.
Survivors said about 50 people were aboard the wooden boat, according to ERT.
Another rescue operation took place after a second boat carrying around 40 migrants and asylum seekers was discovered in the area.
Every year, thousands of people attempt the dangerous crossing from Libya to Europe across the Mediterranean. Libya has become a transit route for people fleeing conflict and poverty in Europe since the fall of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
A United Nations report last week said migrants in Libya, including young girls, were at risk of being killed, tortured, raped or held as domestic slaves, and called for a moratorium on the return of migrant boats to Libya until their human rights were guaranteed.
Many migrants and asylum seekers leaving Libya are trying to reach Crete, a gateway to the European Union.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 16,770 refugees seeking asylum from Europe arrived in Crete in 2025.
A surge in migrant numbers led the conservative Greek government to suspend processing asylum applications for three months last summer, particularly for those arriving from Libya.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that 107 people died or went missing in Greek waters in 2025.
