Pakistan seeks details after vessel carrying 65 sinks off Libyan coast

Pakistan sought details on Monday after a vessel carrying approximately 65 passengers capsized near the port of Marsa Dela, North West of Zawiya city, Libya.

“The Pakistan Embassy in Tripoli has immediately dispatched a team to Zawiya hospital to assist the local authorities in identification of the deceased,” the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement.

It added that the embassy is also trying to ascertain further details of the Pakistani affectees.

Tragic boat capsizing near Moroccan port: Remains of four Pakistanis to reach Islamabad today

“The Crisis Management Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been activated to monitor the situation.”

Vessels ferrying people along the coastline and rivers are often dangerously overcrowded, and accidents can have staggering death tolls. It can also take several days for all bodies to be retrieved.

Last month, a boat with over 86 illegal immigrants aboard capsized near Moroccan’s Dakhla port including 44 Pakistani nationals. Over 20 survivors, however, returned back to Pakistan.

Last year, one Pakistani citizen died in the boat capsizing incident in Greece, while 47 others from Pakistan were successfully rescued.

At least five migrants lost their lives when their wooden boat, which was transporting several Pakistanis, overturned near Greece’s southern island of Gavdos,