The number of Bangladeshis who died in the Libya boat capsize has climbed to 24, including three children, said a Bangladeshi diplomat in Libya yesterday.
“The death toll [of Bangladesh nationals] is so far 24,” Ashraful Islam, a counsellor at the Bangladesh Embassy in Libya, now situated in Tunisia, told the UNB over phone.
He said there were 78 Bangladeshis, including children and women, in the two boats. Of them, 54 were rescued alive.
Ashraful also said Bangladesh has sought support from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for bringing back those rescued back home.
“So far, we have got 20 Bangladeshis who want to go back to Bangladesh,” the diplomat said, adding that they had already talked to the IOM about it.
The rest of the rescued people will stay back if their documents are valid, Ashraful added.
He, however, could not give any detail of the victims’ identities because he was in hurry but said that the rescued women and children were released into their relatives’ custody.
On Friday, Ashraful Islam told UNB over phone from Libya that the death toll was eight. He, however, confirmed the news on the basis of their conversations with the victims’ relatives.
Of the rescued Bangladeshis, women were kept at the embassy and men in a Tripoli detention centre, said a BBC report.
The Bangladesh official has not been allowed to see the dead bodies yet as they could not secure permission through diplomatic channel, the BBC report said.
Around 2am on August 27, a boat – BBC says there were two – carrying 400-500 migrants, including 54 Bangladeshis, capsized off the Libyan coastal town of Zuwara located around 300km west of Tripoli, while crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
A Bangladesh Embassy team, led by Ashraful Islam, is coordinating medical and humanitarian support, said Bangladesh Foreign Ministry.
The migrants were rescued by the Libyan Coast Guards and given treatment.
The first boat, which capsized early Thursday, had nearly 100 people on board. The second, which sank later, was carrying about 400.
Rescuers have meanwhile pulled 82 bodies from the water and saved 198 people, according to an official with the Red Crescent.
Overall death toll
Meanwhile, rescuers have retrieved from the sea a total of 111 bodies of migrants, including the Bangladeshis.
A spokesman for the Libyan relief organisation said dozens are still missing after Thursday’s tragedy, reports AFP.
Spokesman Mohammad al-Misrati said the boat carried 400 would-be migrants, and that 198 had been rescued.
Red Crescent teams wearing protective white clothing and masks on Friday collected bodies that had washed ashore, placing them in orange plastic bags and carrying them to ambulances.
Libya, with a coastline of 1,770km. has for years been a stepping stone for Africans seeking a better life in Europe, with most heading for Italy.
Conflicts across the Middle East, especially in Syria, have also made Libya a transit country for those fleeing violence in the region.
People smugglers have taken advantage of the chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi to step up their lucrative business.
The Mediterranean crossing is treacherous, and about 2,500 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe this year alone.
Meanwhile, three people have been arrested in Libya on suspicion of involvement in launching a boat packed with migrants that sank off the country’s Mediterranean coast, killing up to 200 people, Reuters quoting a security official said yesterday.
The vessel with up to 400 sub-Saharan, Syrian and Asian migrants on board capsized on Thursday after setting off from the town of Zuwara, a major launchpad for people smugglers exploiting anarchy in a country with two rival governments.
Oil-producing Libya has turned into a major transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to make it to Europe.
Three Libyan smugglers involved in launching the ill-fated boat and other vessels to bring migrants to Italy have been arrested, said a security official, asking not to be named.
“They are in their twenties,” he said. “We think that more are involved which we are still chasing.”
Arrests of smugglers are rare in Libya, where the judiciary has little power since the country is effectively controlled by ex-rebel groups which helped to oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
On Thursday, Zuwara residents staged a protest to demand authorities clamp down on smugglers who use the town to launch boats due to its proximity to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Libya has asked the European Union for help to train and equip its navy, which was largely destroyed during the 2011 uprising.
But cooperation was frozen in 2014 as the European Union boycotted a self-declared government controlling western Libya, which seized the capital Tripoli a year ago by expelling the internationally recognized premier to the east.
Western and most Arab powers only deal with the eastern-based government, which has no control of western Libya where smugglers operate.
The number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe has passed 300,000 this year, up from 219,000 in the whole of 2014, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.
