Three Med capsize survivours return home

Survivors of a boat carrying migrants that sunk in the Mediterranean during the night of 9 and 10 May, gather at a shelter in the Tunisian coastal city of Zarzis on 11 May 2019. AFP file photo
Survivors of a boat carrying migrants that sunk in the Mediterranean during the night of 9 and 10 May, gather at a shelter in the Tunisian coastal city of Zarzis on 11 May 2019. AFP file photo

Three survivours of the Mediterranean boat capsize have returned home 14 days into the deadly incident. Dozens of other Bangladeshi nationals are still missing in the incident.

The flight carrying the returnees reached Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport around 5:38 this morning.

The returnees are Mahfuz Ahmed, Billal Ahammed and Bahadur.

Airport sources confirmed this to Prothom Alo, saying that they have been kept at the airport’s immigration.

According to media reports, earlier on 10 May, a boat carrying around 75 migrants had left Libya's Zouara and a total of 37 Bangladeshis among others went missing in the boat capsize in the Mediterranean Sea.

“Two boats -- one carrying around 50 and another 70 people - set out at the same time on the night of 9 May. The first one possibly reached Italy while the second one capsized,” ASM Ashraful Islam, labour counsellor of Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli, earlier told news agency UNB.

According to the UNHCR, at least 168 people died while trying to reach Europe between January and April this year.