FO confirms 7 Pakistanis dead in Libya boat wreck

The Foreign Office said on Thursday that seven Pakistani nationals have drowned in a boat wreck near Libya’s port city of Benghazi.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch at a weekly press briefing said the embassy of Pakistan in Libya was facilitating the process of identification of the bodies.

Fifty-nine people died, including some children when a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants crashed against rocks on the southern Italian coast early on Sunday.

The FO spokesperson said the bodies would be transported to Pakistan with the support of local authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

She said the embassy and Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also in contact with the families of the deceased.

The development comes days after four Pakistanis died after a boat carrying migrants to Europe crashed on rocks near the southern Italian coast.

In a statement, the FO spokesperson said the embassy in Tripoli was facilitating the transportation of the mortal remains to Pakistan.

At least 62 people were killed in Sunday's disaster, according to Italian authorities and rescuers. Eighty people had survived, but more were believed missing based on survivors' estimates of up to 200 people being on board.

Earlier, Pakistan's foreign office said its diplomats in Italy had met with 16 Pakistani survivors who said 20 Pakistanis were on the ship and four remained missing.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif tweeted on Monday morning that reports suggested more than two dozen Pakistanis had drowned and that he had asked the foreign office to make checks.

Rescuers and U.N. agencies said many Afghans had also been travelling on the wooden sailboat, which had come from Turkey.

The U.N. refugee agency said that last year people travelling from Turkey made up about 15% of arrivals to Italy by sea and that nearly half of those using the route were from Afghanistan.