• Families say victims hailed from Gujrat, Gujranwala regions; one survives
• Over 80 migrants went missing after boat carrying 120 people sank in Mediterranean

GUJRAT: After a boat carrying more than 100 migrants capsized off the coast of Italy on Sunday, at least 20 Pakistani nationals, hailing from Gujranwala and Gujrat regions, were said to be among dozens of victims who were lost at sea.

According to the UN’s Int­er­national Organisation for Mig­ration, more than 80 migrants had gone missing when their boat capsized in the Central Mediterranean after departing from Tajoura Libya, with around 120 people onboard. 32 people were rescued and two bodies were found.

Local sources said that at least 20 of the missing Pakistanis had been from Gujranwala, Mandi Bahauddin, Hafizabad and Sialkot districts. At least six victims were from the Phalia tehsil of Mandi Bahauddin. About 11 people hailed from the Pindi Bhattian and Hafizabad tehsils of Hafizabad district, and one each from Gujranwala’s Noshehran Virkan and Sambrial tehsil of Sialkot. One Pakistani national, Imran Asghar, was among the survivors.

The Federal Investigation Agency, however, declined to confirm the reports about missing Pakistani nationals. An FIA official told Dawn that they had been investigating these reports and collecting information from the respective districts.

He said the foreign and interior ministries had not shared any information with them regarding the number and the identities of Pakistanis, feared dead in the incident. This is the first major incident involving the Pakistani immigrants since January 2025 when at least 40 citizens drowned on their way to Spain.

The International Organisation for Migration said the vessel took on water in rough weather before overturning, according to AFP. 32 survivors were rescued by a merchant vessel and a tugboat and later brought to Lampedusa by the Italian coast guard, it said, adding that two bodies had been recovered.

Survivors said that the boat had left Zuara in Libya overnight between March 28 and 29.

“After three days at sea, the vessel was left adrift due to engine failure, fuel shortages and lack of food as weather conditions deteriorated,” IOM said, adding that initial testimonies indicated “many victims died before rescue operations, possibly due to hypothermia”.

According to the IOM, more than 180 people are feared dead or missing in Mediterranean shipwrecks over the past 10 days, the United Nations said Tuesday, with nearly 1,000 deaths counted since the start of 2026.

So far this year, around 765 people had died in the Central Mediterranean — over 460 more than during the same period in 2025, it added.

And “across the Mediterranean as a whole, at least 990 deaths have been recorded in 2026”, IOM said, adding that it was “one of the deadliest starts to a year since 2014”, when it began collecting this data.

The agency said that just since March 28, at least 181 people had died or gone missing in five separate shipwrecks.

In an earlier shipwreck on April 1, at least 19 migrants were found dead aboard a vessel off Lampedusa, IOM said, adding that 58 people, including women and children, had been rescued, with several in critical condition.

Also on April 1, at least 19 other migrants died in the Aegean Sea near Bodrum, Turkiye, after a rubber boat capsized en route to Greece, the agency said, adding that “several” people had been rescued in that case.

IOM also listed a shipwreck on March 30, near Sfax, Tunisia that left 19 dead and around 20 missing, and another on March 28, in which at least 22 people died off Crete after departing eastern Libya.

“These tragedies show, once again, that far too many people are still risking their lives on dangerous routes,” IOM chief Amy Pope said in the statement. “Saving lives must come first. But we also need stronger, unified efforts to stop traffickers and smugglers from exploiting vulnerable people, and to expand safe and regular pathways - so no one is ever forced into these deadly journeys.”

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2026