At least 38 migrants died in two separate boat incidents off Turkey and Italy on Wednesday, as rough seas and bad weather continue to affect Mediterranean crossing routes, according to coast guard officials, local authorities and aid groups.

In southwestern Turkey, 19 Afghan migrants, including a baby, died when an inflatable dinghy sank in the Aegean Sea off Bodrum, a popular tourist destination, after it was challenged by a Turkish coast guard vessel, authorities said.

The Turkish coast guard said the group had been traveling in a rubber boat that "refused to stop and continued fleeing at high speed" despite warnings, and that the vessel later began taking on water and sank just off Bodrum in adverse sea and weather conditions.

Rescue teams initially recovered 18 bodies and retrieved 21 people alive from the water, but one survivor later died in hospital, bringing the death toll to 19, the coast guard said.

Local Governor Idris Akbiyik said all those on board were Afghan nationals and confirmed that a baby was among the dead. "Following the initial interviews with the rescued migrants, search operations are continuing for one irregular migrant who is believed to be missing," the coast guard said.

Read AlsoMigrant boat capsizes in Turkey leaving 18 dead

19 found dead near Lampedusa

In a separate incident, the Italian coast guard recovered the bodies of 19 migrants from an inflatable boat south of Lampedusa after a rescue operation in Libyan search-and-rescue waters, according to Italian officials and media reports citing the coast guard. Fifty-eight other people, including five children, were rescued and taken to the island of Lampedusa.

Roberto D’Arrigo, a spokesman for the Italian coast guard, said the boat had been spotted drifting by an Italian reconnaissance plane on Tuesday (March 31), but there were no Libyan coast guard or civilian vessels in the area to assist. He said Italy sent a coast guard vessel from Lampedusa and that sea conditions were severe, with waves reaching six to seven meters.

Lampedusa mayor Filippo Mannino said seven people, including two children, were being treated in hospital for "hypothermia and intoxication from hydrocarbon fumes."

The news agency Reuters, citing rescue officials and aid groups, reported that some of the victims, 18 men and one woman, were believed to have died of hypothermia according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Doctors without Borders (MSF).

The boat reportedly spent at least three days at sea following departure from western Libya late Saturday or early Sunday. Those reports said three additional people who had been aboard the boat were still missing. Among those on board were migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, including nationals from Niger, Nigeria, South Sudan, Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

Lack of safe routes

Various migrant rescue and human rights NGOs have linked Wednesday’s deaths to the lack of safe and legal routes to Europe, saying people are forced onto dangerous boats because regular migration pathways remain extremely limited. The medical humanitarian charity Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières --MSF) and other groups have described the latest shipwrecks as part of a broader pattern in which European deterrence policies and restricted asylum access push more people into perilous sea crossings.

These NGOs also argue that their ability to intervene in such emergencies is being undermined by legal and administrative measures taken by EU‑member authorities.

In late March 2026, Italian authorities imposed a 20‑day detention order and a 10,000 euro fine on the German rescue vessel Sea‑Watch 5 after it rescued 93 people in distress in international waters and docked at Trapani, Sicily, instead of proceeding to a port more than 1,100 kilometers away as ordered by authorities. The NGO said it would challenge the detention in court, arguing that the move targeted a vessel that had acted in accordance with international law.

This follows an earlier episode in early February 2026, when Italian authorities detained the same ship for 15 days and fined the organization 7,500 euros after it rescued 18 people on January 24 . Later that month, this detention order was annulled by an Italian court, and Sea‑Watch has said it would pursue legal action against the broader pattern of such measures.

The Italian court also ordered the government to pay the NGO 76,000 euros in compensation for the earlier unlawful detention of its vessel Sea‑Watch 3, reinforcing the group’s claim that state‑imposed sanctions against NGO‑run rescue ships have repeatedly been struck down in the courts.

Read AlsoMigrant boat crash with Turkish coast guard leaves at least 14 dead

Rising death toll

Sea-Watch, a German rescue group, said the 19 deaths near Lampedusa were part of a wider increase in fatalities at sea and estimated that at least 104 people had died in the Mediterranean over the previous three days.

In a statement, the group said the people brought ashore in Lampedusa had been "left at sea for days" and that some appeared to have died during the transfer to land.

Sea-Watch said it was not yet clear whether the boat found near Lampedusa was the same one its vessel Aurora had searched for unsuccessfully on Monday (March 30). "The situation is terrifying: people adrift at sea for days without any help," the group added in a statement.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said it was "deeply saddened by yet another tragic incident in the Mediterranean" and that its staff were providing immediate support to survivors.

Read AlsoTobruk-to-Crete migrant crossings intensify as Greece enforces strict sea patrols

Series of incidents linked to bad weather

The IOM had recorded 624 deaths or disappearances in the central Mediterranean in its Missing Migrants database as of March 28, 2026. An IOM spokesperson later estimated that the addition of 19 deaths from the Lampedusa incident brought the 2026 toll on that route to 643.

Separately, the deaths of 19 people reported off Turkey’s Aegean coast are expected to be recorded on the eastern Mediterranean route, where the database recorded 123 deaths in the same period.

Italian interior ministry data shows that 6,117 migrants have arrived in Italy by boat so far this year, down from 9,215 in the same period of 2025 and 11,416 in the first three months of 2024. At the beginning of the year, poor weather reduced departures from North Africa while making conditions more dangerous for those who attempted the crossing.

Sea-Watch and other migrant rescue groups have linked the latest deaths to a period of severe weather in the central Mediterranean, saying the incidents came after Cyclone Harry, during which NGOs estimated that around 1,000 people may have died or gone missing at sea. That estimate has been circulated by migrant rescue groups, though the full toll has not been independently confirmed by authorities.

Read AlsoIncrease in migrant deaths highlights rising dangers of Mediterranean route

With AFP, AP, dpa and Reuters