TRIPOLI: The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) announced on Tuesday that at least 60 migrants, including Pakistani nationals, are feared to have perished in two separate shipwrecks off the coast of Libya over the past week.
The first incident occurred on June 12 near a Libyan port in Tripoli. Out of 26 individuals on board, 21, including women and children, are reported missing. Only five survivors have been found so far.
The IOM confirmed that the victims of this tragic sinking included Eritrean, Pakistani, Egyptian, and Sudanese nationals.
A second, equally devastating shipwreck took place approximately 35 kilometres (20 miles) off the port city of Tobruk.
According to the UN body, a lone survivor reported that 39 people were lost at sea in this incident, highlighting the perilous journey undertaken by migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean.
“With dozens feared dead and entire families left in anguish, IOM is once again urging the international community to scale up search and rescue operations and guarantee safe, predictable disembarkation for survivors,” said Othman Belbeisi, the IOM’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
According to the statement, at least 743 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
The deadly route, it said, is “marked by increasingly dangerous smuggling practices, limited rescue capacity and growing restrictions on humanitarian operations”.
Earlier in April, a vessel carrying foreign nationals sank near the Harawa coast of Sirte in eastern Libya, the Foreign Office (FO) said, confirming that four Pakistani nationals were among the 11 bodies recovered.
The incident added to the list of migrant boat tragedies resulting in the loss of precious lives, with dozens of Pakistanis drowning in multiple incidents in recent months.
In view of this, Lahore’s Jamia Naeemia also issued a religious edict against the use of illegal means to travel abroad from Pakistan.
The religious decree, issued by Dr Mufti Raghib Hussain Naeemi and Mufti Imran Hanfi, said that using illegal means to go abroad is not only unlawful but also violates Shariah.
It said that committing suicide or taking any step that threatens one’s life is against the principles of Islamic Shariah.
Anyone who ends his life or takes a step that leads to his death could never be allowed in Islam under any circumstances, the decree said and advised people considering going abroad to use legal and safe means for going to other countries.
