Tripoli, Feb 9 : Fifty-three migrants, including two infants, were dead or missing after their rubber boat capsized off the coast of Libya, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said Monday.

The vessel, which was carrying 55 people, overturned on Friday north of the city of Zuwara, northwestern Libya. Only two survivors, both Nigerian women, were rescued by Libyan authorities, Xinhua news agency reported. One survivor reported losing her husband in the wreck; the other lost her two children, the IOM said.

The boat departed from the western city of Al-Zawiya late on February 5. Survivors told the UN migration agency the craft began taking on water and capsized about six hours into the journey.

The IOM said its teams provided emergency medical aid to the women. The Central Mediterranean remains one of the world's deadliest migration routes, with the latest tragedy bringing the 2026 death toll to at least 484.

The agency warned that smuggling networks continue to exploit migrants by using unseaworthy vessels and called for "protection-centered" international responses and safer legal pathways for migration.

Last November, the IOM said that a rubber boat carrying 49 migrants and refugees capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving 42 people dead.

In a statement, the IOM said Libyan authorities carried out a search and rescue operation on November 8 near the Al Buri Oil Field after the vessel, which had departed from the Libyan coastal city of Zuwara, capsized.

According to survivors, the boat left Zuwara on November 3. About six hours after its departure, high waves caused the engine to fail, overturning the vessel and throwing all passengers into the sea.

After drifting for six days, seven were rescued -- four from Sudan, two from Nigeria and one from Cameroon. The 42 missing migrants were presumed dead, including 29 from Sudan, eight from Somalia, three from Cameroon and two from Nigeria, the IOM said.

According to data from the IOM's Missing Migrants Project, more than 1,000 migrants and refugees died in the Central Mediterranean in 2025.

Libya's Ministry of Defence, under the UN-recognised Government of National Unity (GNU), announced that it has targetted several boats used for smuggling illegal migrants in northwestern Libya.

According to a post by the state-run Libya National TV on social media platform Facebook, the airstrikes, conducted inside Zuwara Port, about 120 km west of the capital Tripoli, were carried out with precision and without causing any human casualties.

Field sources told the channel that the airstrikes followed close monitoring and tracking of smuggling networks operating in the area.

According to the ministry, the operation was part of ongoing security efforts to combat human trafficking networks and curb the flow of migrants through Libya's coastal areas.

Libya has long been a major transit point for irregular migrants due to its geographic proximity to Europe and its long Mediterranean coastline. Since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, prolonged instability and weak border control have allowed smuggling networks to operate with relative ease.

/IANS