Boat capsized off Libya coast carried 32 Pakistanis, says Foreign Office

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office of Pakistan Sunday said that 32 Pakistani nationals were aboard the ship that wrecked off Libya coast on January 31.

“There were 32 Pakistanis among 80 to 90 people aboard the boat,” FO spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal told newsmen during a press briefing here.

He said that officials of the Pakistani mission reached the site on the same day, adding that human smugglers were trying to illegally take the passengers in the boat to Europe.

Faisal said information on the deceased [Pakistani] citizens is available on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that four of the deceased Pakistanis have yet to be identified.

“Efforts are being made to bring bodies of deceased Pakistani citizens, for which funds have been provided to the embassy,” the spokesman said.

Earlier on Saturday, Faisal confirmed that 16 Pakistanis died in the shipwreck.

The International Organisation for Migration believes the incident did not take place due to inclement weather as the sea was calm.

“We know that the weather was calm, so that’s indicating that the smugglers – who are cavalier to say the least – have hugely overloaded this vessel,” Al Jazeera quoted IOM’s Leonard Doyle as saying.

“We need to get the word out to people, desperate people around the world, who think they are coming to a better life and they are reading about it on social media, that it’s not the case.”

The people whose bodies have been recovered belonged to Mandi Bahauddin, Gujrat, Rawalpindi and Sargodha areas of Punjab in Pakistan. Previously, a number of similar cases have occurred in which people — mostly from the mentioned areas of Punjab — have lost their lives en route to illegally sneaking into another country.

In November 2017, over a dozen bodies were found in Turbat, Balochistan from where people, mainly from different areas of Punjab, were trying to illegally cross the border into Iran so as to reach Europe from there for better employment opportunities.