Vessel carrying 65 sinks off Libyan coast; Pakistani embassy seeks details of nationals – Pakistan

The Foreign Office on Monday said Pakistan’s embassy in Libya was seeking details of “Pakistani affectees” as a vessel carrying around 65 passengers capsized near the Marsa Dela port.

The development follows a similar incident last month in which a boat carrying 80 passengers capsized near Morocco. While the identities of at least 13 Pakistanis killed in the incident were confirmed, over 40 Pakistanis were reportedly murdered by African human traffickers on the boat and only 22 survived the tragedy.

In a statement today, the FO said: “Our Embassy in Tripoli has informed that a vessel carrying approximately 65 passengers capsized near the port of Marsa Dela, North West of Zawiya city, Libya.”

It added that the Pakistan Embassy in Tripoli had immediately dispatched a team to “Zawiya hospital to assist the local authorities in [the] identification of the deceased”.

“The embassy is also trying to ascertain further details of the Pakistani affectees,” the statement said.

It is unclear if the passengers onboard the vessel were migrants.

“The Crisis Management Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mofa) has been activated to monitor the situation,” the FO said, providing the following contact details for any query:

For any query related to this incident, the following numbers can be contacted:

Parep Tripoli

03052185882 (WhatsApp)
+218 913870577 (Cell)
+218 916425435 (WhatsApp)

Crisis Management Unit, Mofa, Islamabad

Phone No: 051-9207887
Email: cmu1@mofa.gov.pk

In December, several Pakistanis died in a boat capsizing incident in Greece. As per the estimate, more than 80 Pakistanis drowned in the accident, 36 of whom were rescued. The remaining have been presumed dead.

More than 30 Federal Investigation Agency officers have been booked and dismissed from service over their alleged collusion with human smugglers in illegally sending Pakistanis abroad.

In June 2023, hundreds of migrants drowned when an overcrowded vessel capsized and sank in international waters off the southwestern Greek coastal town of Pylos. It was one of the deadliest boat disasters ever in the Mediterranean Sea and there were at least 209 Pakistanis on the boat.

In April of the same year, Pakistanis were among dozens dead as two migrant boats sank in the Mediterranean off different towns in western Libya.

Previously in February 2023, Pakistanis were among 59 people killed when a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants crashed against rocks on the southern Italian coast.

More to follow