Dozens of migrants died on Sunday after they were shipwrecked off southern Italy, the latest such disaster.
The United Nations has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world.
Here is a timeline of some of the worst shipwrecks in the zone over the past eight years, according to data gathered by the U.N.'s missing migrants project.
The number of dead relates to bodies that were recovered. The figure given for the numbers of missing is often provided by survivors. In most cases they are missing, presumed dead.
2023
Feb. 26: Dozens die, 81 people survive when a boat that they had boarded in the Turkish port of Izmir breaks apart near the southern Italian coastal town of Crotone.
Feb. 14: 18 people dead, 55 missing, 7 survivors when a boat capsized east of Qasr Al-Akhyar, Libya.
2022
June 18: 13 dead, 63 missing, 24 survivors in a sinking off Sfax, Tunisia.
April 2: No dead found, 96 missing, 4 survivors in a sinking off Misrata, Libya.
2021
Dec. 17: 9 dead, 93 missing, 8 survivors after boat sinks off Sabratha, Libya.
April 22: 130 missing, no survivors after boat sinks 73 nautical miles north west of Al Khums, Libya.
2020
Nov. 12: 57 dead, 18 missing, 48 survivors after boat sinks off the coast of Al Khums, Libya.
Sept. 21: 111 missing, 4 survivors after boat sinks off Sabratha, Libya.
2019
Aug. 19: 100 missing, 3 survivors when boat sinks at an unspecified location off Libya.
July 25: 75 dead, 75 missing, 134 survivors when boat sinks off Al Khums, Libya.
July 3: 83 dead, 3 survivors when boat sinks off the coast of Zarzis, Tunisia. The boat had sailed from Libya.
2018
Sept. 1: 2 dead, 128 missing, 55 survivors when boat sinks off the coast of Al Khums, Libya.
June 29: 3 dead, 101 missing, 16 survivors when boat sinks off the coast of Tripoli, Libya.
June 19: 6 dead, 95 missing, 5 survivors when boat sinks west of Tripoli, Libya. A separate report for the same day says 70 people were missing and 60 survived a sinking off Tripoli.
June 2: 84 dead, 28 missing, 68 survivors when a boat sinks off Kerkennah island, Tunisia.
Feb. 1: 14 dead, 86 missing, 3 survivors when a boat sank off the coast of Zuwara, Libya.
Jan 9: 100 missing, 279 survivors when a boat sank off the coast of Al Khums, Libya.
2017
Aug. 30: 120 missing, 1 survivor when a boat sinks off the coast of Ben Guerdane, Tunisia.
June 17: 2 dead, 108 missing, 25 survivors when a boat sinks off the coast of Zuwarah, Libya.
May 19: 11 dead, 145 missing, 4 survivors northwest of Tripoli, Libya.
May 7: 11 dead, 102 missing, 7 survivors off Az-Zawiyah, Libya.
Feb 19: 13 dead, 105 missing, no survivors off the coast of Al Khums, Libya.
Jan 14: 9 dead, 167 missing, 4 survivors 30-40 nautical miles off the coast of Libya.
2016
Nov 16: 7 dead, 96 missing, 27 survivors in seas between Libya and Italy.
Nov. 2: 128 missing, 2 survivors in seas between Libya and Italy.
Nov. 1: 87 dead, 24 missing, 29 survivors 25 miles off the coast of Libya.
Oct. 26: 97 dead, 29 survivors 26 miles east of Tripoli, Libya.
Sept. 21: 204 dead, 84 missing, 162 survivors 7.5 miles off the coast of Burg Rashid, Egypt.
July 31: 120 dead off the coast of Sabratha, Libya.
June 3: 10 dead, 329 missing, 318 survivors off the coast of Crete. The boat left Libya but drifted.
May 29: 45 dead, 200 missing, 625 survivors of the coast of western Libya.
June 2: 133 dead, 417 missing, 87 survivors off the coast near Zuwara, Libya.
May 25: 5 dead, 250 missing, 460 survivors off the coast of Zawiya, Libya.
April 9: 459 missing, 37 survivors off the coast of el-Saloum, Egypt.
2015
Aug. 27 - 111 dead, 91 missing, 198 survivors off the coast of Libya.
Aug. 6: 27 dead, 200 missing, 373 survivors 16 miles north of Libya.
April 18: 750 dead, 272 missing, 28 survivors 120 miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Frances Kerry)
