The Foreign Office (FO) confirmed on Thursday that seven Pakistani nationals drowned in a boat wreck near Libya’s port city of Benghazi.

Addressing a weekly press briefing, FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the embassy of Pakistan in Libya was facilitating the process of identification of the bodies.

She said the bodies would be transported back to Pakistan with the support of local authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Baloch added that the Pakistan embassy and Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also in contact with the families of the deceased persons.

In a similar incident last month, a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries crashed against rocks on the southern Italian coast.

The vessel had set sail from Turkiye several days ago and crashed in stormy weather near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria, with bodies, shoes, and debris washing up along a long stretch of shoreline.

Earlier this week, the FO spokesperson said that two Pakistanis had died in the tragic incident, one more was found alive while the status of the fourth was unaccounted for.

FM to undertake NYC trip

In her briefing today, the FO spokesperson also mentioned that Foreign Minister (FM) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would visit New York to participate in the conference on “Women in Islam: Understanding the rights and Identity of Women in the Islamic World” being held on March 8.

As an initiative of FM Bilawal, Baloch said, the conference was being convened by Pakistan in its capacity as the chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Council of Ministers, at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters on the sidelines of the 67th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

She said the foreign minister would chair the high-level and policy dialogue segments, with ministerial-level participation from OIC member states and non-OIC states, in addition to the leadership of the UN, UN Women, and other international organisations.

On March 10, FM Bilawal will partake in an event on Islamophobia in New York. It may be recalled that last year, at the initiative of Pakistan, the UN General Assembly declared March 15 as the Day to Combat Islamophobia.