Five Bangladeshi nationals were among the 200 people who lost their lives after two boats carrying about 500 migrants sank off Libya, reported BBC Bangla.
Quoting an official of Bangladesh Embassy in Tunisia, the news outlet reported that two children were among the Bangladeshi deceased.
Related story: 200, including Bangladeshis, feared dead in Libya sinking
Earlier, Mozammel Haque of the Bangladeshi embassy in Libya told BBC Bangla that a total of 31 Bangladeshis were in the two boats that sank after leaving Zuwara.
Zuwara, Libya’s most western town located near the Tunisian border, is a major launchpad for smugglers shipping migrants to Italy.
The boats packed with mainly African migrants bound for Italy sank off the Libyan coast on Thursday.
The migrants on board had been from Bangladesh, Africa, Pakistan, Syria and Morocco, a security official in the western town of Zuwara said.
The security official said there had around 500 people on board. Many appeared to have been trapped in the hold during the incident.
By late in the evening, the Libyan coast guard rescued around 201, of which 147 were brought to a detention facility for illegal migrants in Sabratha, west of Tripoli, the official told the Rauters, asking not to be named.
However, the Bangladeshi embassy official could not confirm whether any Bangladeshi has been brought to a detention.
He told BBC Bangla: “Bangladeshi nationals living in Libya are trying to flee the country because of the ongoing conflict.”
Libya has turned into a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to make it to Europe. Cross-border smuggler networks exploit the country’s lawlessness and chaos to bring Syrians into Libya via Egypt or nationals of sub-Saharan countries via Niger, Sudan and Chad.
More than 2,300 people have died this year in attempts to reach Europe by boat, compared with 3,279 during the whole of last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
As many as 50 refugees were found dead in a parked truck in Austria near the Hungarian border on Thursday, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the discovery had shaken European leaders discussing the migrant crisis at a Balkans summit.
Libya has been struggling to cope with an influx of migrants, putting them in overcrowded makeshift detention facilities such as schools or military barracks where they live in poor conditions lacking medical care.
The North African country used to deport migrants it caught but with fighting between armed groups having cut off land border crossings to Niger, Algeria and Chad many stay months or years in detention facilities.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
