MIGRANTS trying to reach Europe are vanishing in droves in “invisible shipwrecks” but governments responsible for search and rescue are withholding information about what they know, rights groups said today.

The beginning of 2026 ranks as the deadliest start to any year for people trying to cross the Mediterranean with an unprecedented 682 confirmed missing as of March 16, according to the United Nations’ International Organisation for Migration. 

But the real death toll is almost certainly much higher.

Human rights groups are increasingly struggling to verify tolls as Italy, Tunisia and Malta have quietly restricted information on migrant rescues and shipwrecks along the deadliest migration route in the world. 

The news barely makes headlines, in part because the lack of transparency prevents journalists from confirming reports.

“It’s a strategy of silence,” said Matteo Villa, a researcher focusing on migration and data at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies think tank.

Rights groups have been sounding the alarm since late January, reporting more than 1,000 people missing after Cyclone Harry hit the region. 

In the weeks that followed the cyclone, more than 20 decomposing bodies washed ashore in Italy and Libya while other human remains were spotted floating in the middle of the sea.

“Europe should know that these people who got drowned in the sea have family members, have dreams, have passions,” said Josephus Thomas, a migrant from Sierra Leone and community leader in Tunisia’s coastal town of El Amra.

The UN’s migration agency is increasingly unable to verify cases of migrants who die in what are known as “invisible shipwrecks” because of the growing lack of information.

Julia Black, who leads the organisation’s Missing Migrants Project, said: “We’ve seen the restriction of access for humanitarian actors, which is not right. And now we’re seeing even the restriction of information.” 

Authorities in Tunisia, Italy and Malta did not respond to requests for comment.