About 90 Migrants Feared Dead After Boat Capsizes Near Libya

GENEVA — The United Nations is investigating a sudden increase in Pakistani migrants attempting to make the perilous sea crossing to Europe, its migration agency said on Friday, after a smuggler’s boat foundered off the coast of Libya leaving 90 people feared drowned.

Most of the victims appear to have been from Pakistan, according to information provided by three survivors that had not been verified, said Olivia Headon, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, who added that eight of the 10 bodies from the capsized craft that had washed up on the Libyan coast were Pakistani.

The boat appeared to have become unbalanced in relatively calm waters after setting off from Zuwarah, in western Libya, a popular departure point for migrants across the Mediterranean.

Most migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, usually Italy, are from sub-Saharan West African countries. Over 3,100 Pakistanis made the sea crossing from North Africa to Italy in 2017, out of a total of over 119,000, making them the 13th largest group by nationality, Ms. Headon said, speaking by telephone from Tunis with reporters in Geneva.

That proportion changed dramatically last month, when 248 Pakistanis reached Italy via the same route, from a total of about 4,000 people, making them the third biggest group by nationality. A year earlier, in January 2017, just nine Pakistanis made the crossing.

The United Nations is trying to determine what has precipitated the surge in Pakistanis making the journey through Libya. Some migrants may have diverted to Libya after more traditional routes through Turkey and Greece were closed off or became more difficult to cross in winter, said Flavio Di Giacomo, a United Nations migration official in Rome.

Some of the Pakistani migrants who crossed to Italy in January had been expelled from refugee camps in Greece, where they were sent back to Turkey before finding their way to Libya via Sudan, he said.

But Mr. Di Giacomo also raised the possibility that the new wave of Pakistani migrants was drawn from a longstanding population of Pakistani migrant laborers inside Libya, which has been a destination for Pakistani workers since the time of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, who was ousted during the Arab Spring in 2011.

The deteriorating conditions in Libya could have compelled the Pakistanis to abandon the country and make the sea crossing, Mr. Di Giacomo said. “They find themselves stuck in a horrible situation, vulnerable to human rights violations and the slave market. So they may have no choice but to seek a crossing to Europe.”

“We have to investigate whether they have been living in Libya for years, or coming more recently through Turkey and Sudan,” he said.

Leonard Doyle, a spokesman for the migration agency, said another possible reason the growing number of Pakistanis, as well as Bangladeshis, making such journeys could be the increased use of social media to better connect with people willing to attempt the trip.

There was no immediate reaction from the Pakistani government on Friday.

Pakistan has previously said that it is taking measures to reduce people-smuggling and illegal migration. Its embassy in Athens wrote to officials in Islamabad in January, according to local news outlets, appealing for additional help to curb migration.

Pakistanis have been to get into Europe illegally for decades. Traditionally, the bulk of Pakistanis trying to make the journey come from Punjab, the country’s most populous province. From there, the journey has usually involved going first to the southwestern province of Baluchistan and then, illegally, into Iran and onward toward Europe.

At least 246 migrants died trying to cross to Italy in January, the United Nations says, so the disaster on Friday means that the number of people killed while attempting to reach Europe this year will almost certainly surpass 300.

At least 35 people other people are believed to have died in another episode on Sunday, when a dinghy crowded with more than 130 people sank within hours of leaving Zuwarah.

The chaotic conditions in Libya, which has been devastated by years of war, have made it a hub for migrants and the traffickers smuggling them to Europe.

Europe has been wrestling with the issue for years as people try to flee war and economic hardship, and the number of people making the crossing dropped by one-third in 2017 after the European Union struck a controversial deal with Libya to try to stop the flow of migrants.

The Libyan route is the biggest migrant corridor into Europe, accounting for the majority of the 6,624 migrants that arrived in Europe in January, the United Nations said.

Nick-Cumming Bruce reported from Geneva, and Declan Walsh from Cairo. Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.

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