Quoting The Red Crescent and local government representatives, Bangladesh Ambassador to Libya Abul Hasnat Mohammad Khairul Bashar said that 23 bodies, believed to be of Bangladeshis, were washed up on Libya's shores.
“However, since they did not have any kind of documentation on them, there is no way to confirm if they are indeed Bangladeshis," the ambassador said in a live stream on Facebook on Sunday.
“Those who were responsible for processing the bodies for burial said the bodies 'looked' to be of Bangladeshis,” he further said.
157 Bangladeshis return from Libya
"A group of 56 migrants left the shores of Libya on January 25. The boat might have felt the accident the same night," he said.
Seven bodies washed ashore on January 28; 11 bodies on January 29; two bodies were found on January 30; and three more on January 31, said the ambassador. The bodies retrieved so far were buried in Ajdabiya, as they were decomposing, he added.
"The ambassador said, 'Two people have been rescued in critical condition and may be in the intensive care unit of a hospital under the police or the army, but we are unsure of their location. We also don’t know the whereabouts of those who are still missing.'"
“We want to visit the area on an emergency basis and conduct an inquiry to gather details, but we have not yet received permission to travel to the region,” added the ambassador.
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The Bangladesh ambassador also said that since taking office in June 2023, he had repatriated over 4,200 Bangladeshis who were detained, jailed, or living in inhumane conditions in Libya through the flights of International Organization for Migration (IOM).
He added, "Every time, I urged them to share their miseries with their relatives and acquaintances so that they refrain from illegally coming to Libya in an attempt to migrate to Italy."
He also urged people of Bangladesh to take action against the nexus involved in the illegal migration.
11 bodies of migrants who were trying to reach Italy recovered off Libya