Libya: Four dead, 14 missing as wooden migrant boat capsizes off coast

The United Nations migration agency on Monday announced that a wooden boat carrying 20 migrants had capsized near Libya, with four confirmed dead and over a dozen more missing.

The official Twitter account for the Libyan branch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the boat had capsized on Sunday near the northwestern city of Surman.

It added that two migrants had been saved while 14 were still missing.

IOM Libya Chief of Mission Federico Soda said: "The absence of any concrete action to reduce loss of life at sea and ensure a safe and human rights based approach to the situation in Libya has catastrophic human consequences."

IOM Libya said that at least 475 deaths have been recorded of people trying to cross the Central Mediterranean in 2022.

The Central Mediterranean route into Europe is "the world's deadliest migratory sea route", the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said last year, citing IOM data.

While this also runs from elsewhere in North Africa, Libya is the route's most common departure point, according to the IFRC.