By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD : Four Pakistani nationals were among 11 migrants whose bodies were recovered after a vessel sank off Libya’s eastern Harawa coast, Foreign Office said on Tuesday, the latest in a series of deadly migrant shipwrecks involving citizens attempting perilous Mediterranean Sea crossings.
“Our mission in Tripoli has reported that a vessel carrying foreign nationals has sunk near the Harawa coast, Sirte City [Eastern Libya],” the Foreign Office said in a statmenet. “A Pakistan embassy team’s visit to Sirte City has confirmed the recovery of 11 bodies of migrants. Of these, four have been identified as Pakistani nationals based on their national documents. Two bodies remain unidentified.”
The FO did not specify when the shipwreck occurred.
The embassy is coordinating with Libyan authorities to gather further details on the victims and notify their families.
“The Crisis Management Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been activated to monitor the situation,” the FO said. “People could enquire more at (051-9207887) or ([email protected]) while Head of Chancery Ashfaque Ali and Public Relations Officer Hassan Saleem at the Tripoli embassy could be contacted at (+92-305-2185882) and (+218-91-8644064), respectively.”
The incident follows multiple recent tragedies involving Pakistani migrants. In February, a boat carrying 65 people capsized near Libya’s Marsa Dela port, with fears of Pakistani casualties. In January, at least 13 Pakistanis were confirmed dead after a vessel sank off Morocco; survivors alleged over 40 others were killed by traffickers.
Last December, around 40 Pakistanis died in shipwrecks off Greece, while 35 remain missing. The FO said 47 Pakistanis were rescued in those incidents.
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has dismissed 50 officials and blacklisted 65 others over alleged ties to human smuggling networks. The agency also introduced stringent airport screenings, offloading 2,500 passengers in January alone at Lahore’s airport over suspicious travel plans.
Pakistani migrants have repeatedly been among victims of the Mediterranean’s deadliest routes. In June 2023, a vessel carrying 750 people sank off Greece, killing hundreds, including 209 Pakistanis. That April, two boats capsized off western Libya, with Pakistanis among the dead. In February 2023, 59 migrants, including Pakistanis, died when a boat crashed near Italy’s Calabria coast.
The United Nations estimates over 20,000 deaths in the Mediterranean since 2014, with 2023 among the deadliest years.
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