Another boat disaster off Libyan coast

ISLAMABAD:

A vessel carrying approximately 65 passengers capsized near the port of Marsa Dela, northwest of Zawiya city, Libya, with the Pakistani embassy working to confirm the identities of affected Pakistani nationals.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Foreign Office (FO) said, "Our Embassy in Tripoli has informed that a vessel carrying approximately 65 passengers capsized near the port of Marsa Dela, northwest of Zawiya city, Libya".

The statement further noted that the Pakistani Embassy in Tripoli had "immediately dispatched a team to Zawiya hospital to assist the local authorities in [the] identification of the deceased".

It added that efforts were underway to determine further details regarding the Pakistani nationals affected by the tragedy.

It remains unclear whether the passengers aboard the vessel were migrants.

"The Crisis Management Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mofa) has been activated to monitor the situation," the FO stated, providing contact details for those seeking information.

The incident came just weeks after another boat, carrying 80 passengers, capsized near Morocco. In that case, the identities of at least 13 Pakistanis killed were confirmed, while over 40 were reportedly murdered by African human traffickers aboard the vessel. Only 22 people survived the ordeal.

Last week, the bodies of at least 29 migrants were recovered from two locations in Libya, according to a security directorate and the Libyan Red Crescent.

The Alwahat district Security Directorate stated that 19 bodies were found in a mass grave at a farm in the Jikharra area, approximately 441 kilometres from Benghazi, linking the deaths to smuggling activities.

Separately, the Libyan Red Crescent reported on Facebook that its volunteers had retrieved the bodies of 10 migrants after a boat sank off Dila port in Zawiya—the same city referenced in the FO's latest statement.

Photographs shared by the Red Crescent showed volunteers placing bodies in white plastic bags at the dockside, with one volunteer numbering a bag for identification.