The Foreign Office (FO) on Tuesday said that four Pakistanis have been identified among the 11 migrants found dead in a shipwreck near Libya’s Harawa coast.

“Our mission in Tripoli has reported that a vessel carrying foreign nationals has sunk near the Harawa coast, Sirte City [Eastern Libya]. 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 said in a press release issued today.

It offered no other details on when the accident occurred.

The FO said the Pakistani embassy in Tripoli was actively working to gather more information about the dead Pakistani nationals and their families and was in contact with the local authorities.

“The Crisis Management Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been activated to monitor the situation,” the FO said, adding that people could enquire more at (051-9207887) or (cmu1@mofa.gov.pk) 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.

A number of Pakistani migrants were feared to be among the dead after a vessel capsized near the Marsa Dela port, northwest of Zawiya city in Libya in February. The boat was carrying around 65 passengers at the time of the accident.

The development followed a similar incident in January 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.

Previous boat tragedies

In December, about 40 Pakistanis died in boat capsize incidents off the coast of Greece, with 35 of them presumed dead after going missing. According to the FO, 47 Pakistanis were among those rescued.

Around 50 Federal Investigation Agency officials were booked and dismissed from service over their alleged collusion with human smugglers in illegally sending Pakistanis abroad. Similarly, 65 FIA officials were blacklisted for posting at any immigration check post.

Boat tragedies have prompted the FIA to introduce “rigorous screening” at all airports of the country, as a result of which it offloaded 2,500 passengers in January at Lahore airport alone.

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.

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