Libya boat capsize: 8 Bangladeshis among 82 dead
At least eight Bangladeshis, including two minor children, died after two boats carrying up to 500 migrants sank off the coast of Libya, said a Bangladeshi diplomat from the North African country.
The first boat, which capsized early Thursday, had nearly 100 people on board. The second, which sank later, was carrying about 400 passengers.
Rescuers have pulled 82 bodies from the water and saved 198 people, according to Red Crescent official Ibrahim al-Attoushi.
About 200 people are reported to be still missing.
The vessels sank after leaving Zuwara, a major launchpad for smugglers shipping migrants to Italy by exploiting a security vacuum in Libya where rival governments are fighting for control four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.
ASM Ashraful Islam, counsellor (Labour) of Bangladesh embassy in Libya, told The Daily Star in a text message at 7:28pm yesterday, “46 rescued alive from the Mediterranean out of 54 Bangladeshis. Rest are dead.” He reconfirmed it in another text message at 8:42pm.
A Bangladesh embassy team led by the labour counsellor is coordinating the medical and humanitarian support for the rescued Bangladeshis.
Earlier, Mozammel Haque, chargé d'affaires of Bangladesh embassy said there were 31 Bangladesh nationals in the two boats and six of them had died.
A foreign ministry statement said the rescued Bangladeshis include four families with children. They were hospitalised and released after first aid.
BBC Bangla quoted Mozammel saying the Bangladesh nationals of four families were reportedly trying to go to Italy. But the boat overturned one hour after sailing off due to a leakage beneath the vessel. Two children -- one six-year-old and another six of months -- died instantly. Four members of two families went missing.
The families were living in Libya and their children born there. They have long been trying to go Italy through sea following deterioration of the situation in Libya.
Several other families had attempted to go in Italy in the past. They took risky journey despite repeated warnings, he added.
Quoting embassy sources, the BBC report said most of the Bangladesh nationals could be rescued as they were wearing lifejackets. “They were floating on the sea throughout the night and rescued early this morning.”
Embassy officials confirmed that Bangladeshi nationals, who were rescued from the sea, have been brought back to Libya.
The next course of action will be taken regarding the repatriation as per the wish of the families, they added.
Al Jazeera quoting Libyan security officials reported that the people on board had been from sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, Syria, Morocco and Bangladesh.
"The boat was in a bad condition and people died with us," said Ayman Talaal, a Syrian survivor, standing next to his daughter. "We have been forced into this route. It's now called the grave of the Mediterranean Sea."
One of the rescued migrants told AFP that he and two friends had each paid 2,200 Libyan dinars ($1,600) to board the boat.
The migrants pay thousands of dollars for the land and sea passage with smugglers often beating and torturing them to press for more money for the final leg of the trip by sea in unseaworthy vessels, rights groups say, reports Reuters.
Yesterday, Red Crescent teams wearing protective white clothing and masks yesterday collected bodies that had washed ashore on a Zuwara beach, placing them in orange plastic bags and carrying them to ambulances.
Lacking navy ships, Libyan officials were searching for survivors with fishing boats and inflatable provided by locals. About 198 people had been rescued by noon, officials said.
Local officials and residents were putting bodies into red bags on a beach littered with shoes, trousers and other personal items from drowned migrants. A blue inflatable brought in more bodies.
"We, the Red Crescent, work with nothing. Some fishermen help us with a boat," said Ibrahim al-Attoushi, an official at the Red Crescent in Zuwara. "We only have one ambulance car."
Libyan officials brought 147 survivors to a detention facility for illegal migrants in Sabratha, west of Tripoli, a Libyan security official said, asking not to be named.
"We have not received a request for help," said a spokesman for the Italian coast guard, which has been coordinating rescue operations with the European Union off the Libyan coast.
About 100 angry Zuwara residents took to the town's main square on Thursday when news of the sinking spread, demanding that authorities stop human traffickers, witnesses said.
Lawless Libya has turned into a major transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to make it to Europe.
The UN says about 2,500 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year, compared with 3,500 who died or went missing in the Mediterranean in 2014 .
Comments