- In the night from October 16 to 17, a shipwreck occurred off the coast of Lampedusa, killing at least seven people, Arab News reported on 21 October 2025. The boat was carrying 30 people, of which 11 were rescued by the Italian coastguard, with 20 missing at the time. The Italian coordinator for UNICEF, Nicola Dell’Arciprete, stated that a pregnant woman had died and “several children are reported missing”. The migrant rescue NGO Alarm Phone stated it had alerted Italian and Maltese authorities to the critical situation of the boat but accused them of delaying the rescue. The event led to protests in Rome concerning Italy’s migration deal with Libya.
- In a decision of the Pre-Trial chamber published on 17 October 2025, the ICC concluded that Italy failed to comply with its obligations under the Rome Statute in its release of Libyan general Almasri, who is accused of crimes against humanity, after his arrest on 19 January in Turin. The Court stated that Italy had ‘provided no valid legal reason or reasonable justification’ for transferring Almasri back to Libya.
- As reported by ANSA on 15 October 2025, one man has died on a boat carrying ten migrants from Algeria, which arrived in Porto Pino, Sardinia. The 27-year-old’s body was identified by his sister, who was also traveling on the boat. A subsequent police investigation identified two people allegedly involved in human smuggling, leading to their arrest in Cagliari a few days later. They are now facing charges of “aiding and abetting illegal migration and nautical homicide” for undertaking the crossing without adequate safety measures which might have prevented the death.
- A boat carrying 140 migrants traveling from Libya to Italy came under fire by the Libyan coastguard, InfoMigrants reported on 14 October 2025. The Italian coastguard stated it had opened an investigation, after rescuing three people requiring urgent medical care from the boat. The individuals were transferred to the port of Pozzallo in Sicily. This report comes shortly after the NGO AlarmPhone reported on Sunday, 12 October, that the Libyan coastguard had opened fire at a vessel carrying 113 migrants southeast of Malta, killing two people – information that has not yet independently been confirmed. It is not clear whether the two events are connected.
- Between 8 and 9 October, several hundred migrants were rescued in different operations off the coast of Lampedusa, as reported by ANSA on 13 October 2025. The rescue missions were conducted by the Italian coastguard, as well as the NGO RESQSHIP, who rescued 175 people in two different missions on October 8. All of the migrants rescued had departed from Libya.
- The detention of the humanitarian rescue vessel Mediteranea has been suspended by the Court of Trapani, ANSA reported on 12 October 2025. Italian authorities had placed the ship under administrative detention in August 2025, after the crew had decided to disembark the rescued migrants at the port of Trapani, rather than the port of Genoa which had been assigned to it. The judge ruling over the case stated: “The Captain did not act out of egoism or for profit, but rather to safeguard the rescued persons, to save them from additional navigation time toward the port of Genoa, taking into account of the vulnerable conditions of these persons”.