Around 40-45 Bangladeshis remain missing after a migrant boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off the Tunisia coast on May 10, said an official.
“Two boats, one carrying around 50 and another 70 people, set out at the same time on the night of May 9. The first one possibly reached Italy while the second one capsized,” ASM Ashraful Islam, labour counsellor of Bangladesh Embassy in Tripoli, told news agency UNB.
Fourteen Bangladeshis were rescued from the capsized boat and one body was recovered, he said before adding that the boat reportedly left from Libya’s Zouara.
The body has been identified as Uttam Kumar from Shariatpur’s Naria Upazila.
Ambassador to Libya Sk Sekander Ali and labour counsellor Islam are now in Tunisia to assess the situation.
On Sunday, Foreign Minister AKA Momen told the media in Dhaka that 30 to 35 Bangladeshi were feared dead in the accident.
Bangladesh Red Crescent Society on Monday confirmed the identities of 27 Bangladeshis feared dead in the boat capsize.
They are Nasir (Noakhali), Kamran (Tongi), Zillur Rahman, Limon Ahmed, Abdul Aziz, Ahmed, Zillur, Rafique, Ayat, Amajal, Kasim Ahmed, Khokan, Rubel, Monir, Belal, Maruf and Ripon (Sylhet), Jalal Uddin and Al-Amin (Kishoreganj), Mahbub (Sunamganj), Sajib (Madaripur), Parvej and Kamrun Ahmed Maruf (Shariatpur), Shamim and Fahad (Moulavibazar), Mahbub and Nadim (Sunamganj).
The disaster struck after migrants had set sail for Italy on a large boat from the conflict-ridden Libya on the night of Thursday before being transferred to a smaller one.
The overcrowded vessel subsequently sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Tunisia on Friday, killing at least 65 people, the majority of whom were Bangladeshis.
Of the 16 people rescued by Tunisian fishermen, 14 were Bangladeshis.
The International Organization for Migration has dubbed the accident as the “deadliest migrant boat sinking since January”.