TRIPOLI: At least 60 migrants including Pakistanis are feared dead after a pair of shipwrecks off the coast of Libya over the past week, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

The first ship went down on June 12 near a Libyan port in Tripoli, with 21 people, including women and children, reported missing and only five survivors found, the IOM said in a statement Tuesday.

Those lost at sea included Eritrean, Pakistani, Egyptian and Sudanese nationals.

The second wreck took place about 35 kilometres (20 miles) off the port city of Tobruk, with the sole survivor reporting 39 people lost at sea, according to the UN body.

“With dozens feared dead and entire families left in anguish, IOM is once again urging the international community to scale up search and rescue operations and guarantee safe, predictable disembarkation for survivors,” said Othman Belbeisi, the IOM’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

According to the statement, at least 743 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

The deadly route, it said, is “marked by increasingly dangerous smuggling practices, limited rescue capacity and growing restrictions on humanitarian operations”.

Earlier in April, a vessel carrying foreign nationals sank near the Harawa coast of Sirte in eastern Libya, the Foreign Office (FO) said, confirming that four Pakistani nationals were among the 11 bodies recovered.

The incident added to the list of migrant boat tragedies resulting in the loss of precious lives, with dozens of Pakistanis drowning in multiple incidents in recent months.

In view of this, Lahore’s Jamia Naeemia also issued a religious edict against the use of illegal means to travel abroad from Pakistan.

The religious decree, issued by Dr Mufti Raghib Hussain Naeemi and Mufti Imran Hanfi, said that using illegal means to go abroad is not only unlawful but also violates Shariah. 

It said that committing suicide or taking any step that threatens one’s life is against the principles of Islamic Shariah.

Anyone who ends his life or takes a step that leads to his death could never be allowed in Islam under any circumstances, the decree said and advised people considering going abroad to use legal and safe means for going to other countries.