Boat capsizes off Libyan coast , 11 Pakistanis feared dead
Islamabad, Feb 3 (IBNS): At least 11 Pakistani national are feared to have died in a boat sinking incident of the Libyan coast on Thursday, officials said on Saturday.
" Eleven Pakistanis feared dead in boat sinking incident off the coast of Libya. Pak Embassy in Tripoli actively following up. Names and details of the deceased will follow as soon as Foreign Office gets them from Tripoli," Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal tweeted.
Eleven Pakistanis feared dead in boat sinking incident off the coast of Libya. Pak Embassy in Tripoli actively following up. Names and details of the deceased will follow as soon as Foreign Office gets them from Tripoli.
— Dr Mohammad Faisal (@DrMFaisal) February 2, 2018
At least 90 people are feared to have been killed in the boat sinking incident in the Mediterranean Sea.
The boat reportedly capsized off the coast of Zuwara.
An estimated 90-100 migrants are reported to have been on board a boat, when it capsized off the coast of Libya on Thursday evening, said International Organization for Migration (IOM).
According to IOM Libya’s Olivia Headon, 10 bodies are reported to have washed up on Libyan shores – one Libyan woman and reportedly some Pakistani nationals.
Two survivors are reported to have swam to shore, while another was rescued by a fishing boat, Headon said.
IOM is working to get more details of the tragedy and to see how best to assist survivors, she continued.
In 2017, the 3,138 Pakistani migrants arriving by sea to Italy from Libya were 13th in the overall list of migrant arrivals (119,369).
This year though, they already are the third highest nationality so far, with an estimated 240 reaching Italy in January.
In comparison, only nine Pakistanis arrived in Italy by sea in January 2017.
According to IOM’s Missing Migrants project (MMP), there were no confirmed deaths of Pakistani or Libyan nationals in the Mediterranean in 2017.
In 2016, MMP recorded that 8 Pakistani nationals went missing in the Eastern Mediterranean in a shipwreck on 14 March 2016 near Kos, Greece.
This latest tragedy comes as IOM, the UN Migration Agency, reports that 6,624 migrants and refugees had entered Europe by sea through 28 January.
This compares with 5,983 coming ashore during a similar period in 2017. Italy accounts for approximately 64 per cent of the total, with the remainder split between Spain (19 per cent) and Greece (16 per cent).
Representative Image: Wikimedia Commons
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