ISLAMABAD: At least 11 people have died after a migrant boat capsized near Harawa Coast in Eastern Libya, with four Pakistani nationals confirmed among the victims, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Our mission in Tripoli has reported that a vessel carrying foreign nationals has sunk near the Harawa coast, Sirte City,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Shafaqat Ali Khan said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to the statement, four have been identified as Pakistani nationals based on their national documents. However, it said two bodies remain unidentified.
Among the deceased, Zahid Mahmood, son of Liaqat Ali, was from Gujranwala, while Sameer Ali (son of Raja Abdul Qadeer), Syed Ali Hussain (son of Shafqat-ul-Hassanain), and Asif Ali (son of Nazar Muhammad) were from Mandi Bahauddin.
The statement added that Pakistan’s Embassy in Tripoli is actively working to gather more information about the affected Pakistani nationals and is in contact with the local authorities.
It said the Crisis Management Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been activated to monitor the situation.
This incident is the latest in a series of tragedies involving Pakistanis attempting to migrate to Europe via dangerous sea routes.
In February 2025, the Foreign Office confirmed the deaths of 16 Pakistani nationals in a boat accident off the coast of Libya and reported that at least 10 remain missing.
Just last year, a boat carrying 80 passengers capsized near Morocco, resulting in the confirmed deaths of 13 Pakistanis.
The Mediterranean remains one of the deadliest migration routes. In June 2023, an Italy-bound fishing trawler carrying around 800 people capsized off Greece, with estimates suggesting that up to 300 Pakistanis were among the victims.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that in 2024 alone, at least 674 migrants have died, and over 1,000 remain missing off Libya’s coast. Many of those intercepted by Libyan authorities end up in detention centres, according to UN investigations.
