Up to 90 migrants are feared dead after their boat capsizes near Libya

GENEVA — The United Nations is investigating a sudden increase in Pakistani migrants trying 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.

Many of the victims appeared 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. Mohammad Faisal spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Officer, said in a tweet that Pakistan’s embassy in Libya was investigating but that 11 Pakistanis were believed to have drowned, according initial reports.

The boat appeared to have become unbalanced in relatively calm waters after leaving 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. More than 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 ago, in January 2017, just nine Pakistanis made the crossing. The United Nations is trying to determine what has caused the surge in Pakistanis making the journey through Libya. Some migrants to 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. Moammar Gadhafi, 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.”