The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) revealed on Thursday that at least seven Pakistanis died in a shipwreck in the port city of Benghazi, Libya.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch stated during a weekly press briefing that the Pakistani mission in Libya was aiding the identification of the dead.
The FO official stated that the bodies would be moved to Pakistan with the assistance of local authorities and the international Red Cross committee.
She asserted that the embassy and foreign ministries were also in contact with the deceased’s families.
In a separate tragedy on Sunday, at least 30 Pakistanis perished, and 17 were rescued after their overcrowded boat sank in rough seas off Calabria, Italy.
More than sixty people, including young children, perished early Sunday morning when a wooden sailboat carrying migrants collided with rocks off the coast of southern Italy. Subsequently, Italian authorities reported that they had apprehended two Pakistanis and one Turk on suspicion of smuggling up to 200 migrants aboard the wooden boat.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Alberto Lippolis, two Pakistani nationals and a Turkish guy sailed the boat from Turkey to Italy despite the horrible weather. Survivors named them “the major perpetrators of the disaster.”
“According to preliminary investigations, they allegedly demanded roughly 8,000 euros ($8,485) from each migrant for the perilous journey,” said Lippolis, chief of a finance police squad in Calabria. Three individuals have been arrested. (PhotoNews / APP)