Following the migrant boat capsize in the Mediterranean Sea, in which at least 37 Bangladeshis are feared to be dead, Bangladesh is sending officials from its Libya mission to Tunisia to get a clear picture.
“Any specific information is yet to be available. According to media reports, 51 Bangladeshis were on the boat and 14 of them have been rescued, which means 37 Bangladeshis are feared dead. We are sending officials from the Libya mission to Tunisia,” Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told a media call on Sunday (May 13).
Amid the volatile situation in Libya, Bangladesh has imposed full restriction on travelling to the North African country with few exceptions for those who have permanent job, said the minister.
As many as 37 Bangladeshi are among the migrants who have died after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea after it left Libya for Italy, the Tunisian Red Crescent said Saturday, reports international media.
Survivors told the Red Crescent the tragedy unfolded after some 75 people who had left Zuwara on the northwestern Libyan coast late Thursday on a large boat were transferred to a smaller one that sank off Tunisia.
“The migrants were transferred into a smaller inflatable boat which was overloaded, and 10 minutes later it sank,” Mongi Slim, a Red Crescent official in the southern Tunisian town of Zarzis, told news agencies.
Many Bangladeshis choose the risky way to reach Europe in the hope of a better life. A number of them often die in the seas.
Momen, however, suspects that Bangladeshis are going to Libya from other countries with a hope to go to the Europe instead of going there directly from Bangladesh due to restrictions.
It’s not easy task to look after all issues as with only one officer in Labour wing of the embassy in Tripoli, he said before adding, “We need to work in a coordinated way. We need to know whether people are going abroad in a valid way.”
The foreign minister also said five Bangladesh nationals went to Iraq allured by others and they are now in jail there. “Now, it’s our responsibility to take them back.”
In April, Bangladesh Embassy in Libya advised all Bangladeshi nationals living in Tripoli—and its adjacent cities—to remain alert so as to avoid untoward incidents; because the government of the country issued a "state of alert."
The government of Libya issued a state of alert corresponding in response to the recent state of law and order in the country.