As the Bangladeshi embassy in Libya struggles to identify the bodies of the 23 migrants who have washed ashore in the northern part of the country, families back home are desperately searching for their missing loved ones.

Some of the families have identified the bodies from photos that have been circulating among Libya-based migrant worker support groups.

For example, Palash Miah's body was identified by his family from a photo that was posted. The man from Narshingdi's Shibpur was about 20 years old.

"To our knowledge, there were 22 Bangladeshi nationals on board and some other nationalities."

— -An NGO spokesperson

SM Robin Islam, a family friend of Palash, spoke to The Daily Star by phone to describe the last few minutes before the boat capsized last week.

Robin and Palash's brothers are both migrants living in Saudi Arabia, and both have been following the events closely. 

"There were three survivors aboard the boat. One of them spoke to my roommate [Palash's brother] when he was searching for Palash. He said that when the boat was sinking, the boatman urged them all to jump into the sea. Most of the migrants stayed back on the boat while three jumped and began swimming towards the shore," said Robin.

Two of the men got ahead of the other and made it to shore. They swam for about eight hours. They are now in hiding and waiting to be smuggled from Libya into Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, he said.

"The one who fell behind was rescued and is hospitalised," said Robin.

The Bangladeshi embassy in Libya said two men are in hospital.

Almost all of the family members The Daily Star spoke to said there were 43 migrants on the boat, but the Bangladeshi embassy in Libya said in a statement yesterday that there were 56 people onboard.

The families also said two boats left the shores of northern Libya at the same time in the early hours of January 25. One capsized, and the bodies of 23 of those on board have washed ashore, while the rest remain missing.

Some of the families said that the other boat reached Europe.

The other boat, presumably, was rescued off the coast of Malta by the NGO Alarm Phone on January 29, according to posts made on X (formerly Twitter) by the NGO.

"To our knowledge, there were 22 Bangladeshi nationals on board and some other nationalities," said a spokesperson of the NGO to this newspaper.

There were two bodies on board and the bodies are currently in Malta, the spokesperson added.

The migrants, all coming from impoverished families had each given between Tk 14 lakh to Tk 16 lakh to make the perilous journey across the Central Mediterranean route and land in Europe.

"My nephew Titu Hawlader and an uncle of his, Bashar Akandh, were given 'game' on the same day and were on the boat that capsized. We identified Bashar's body from a photo found on social media," said Saim Ahmed.

"Game" is the colloquial for smuggling migrants from Libya into Europe. 

Bashar left behind a one-year-old child and had been working in Libya for a year before he decided to try and make it to Europe. Titu was about 19 years old. They were both from Madaripur's Rajoir.

"Titu came from an extremely poor family. He dropped out of school after class 5. His father has disabilities. He just wanted to provide for his family," said Saim, himself is a migrant worker who made it to Italy using the same route.

"He took the risk for the same reason as me. I had applied for a work permit twice and spent up to Tk 3 lakh, but the agent took all my money and never managed the permit for me. I was penniless and needed to make one last effort to go abroad," he said.

Sadia too identified her brother-in-law Abul Kalam from the photos of the dead.

"We last spoke to him on January 24. He called in the evening and said that he would be given 'game'. He said that his cellphone and passport would be taken away from him by the traffickers," said Sadia. "After seeing the photo, my sister fell sick and had to be hospitalised."

Kalam was a junior officer at an insurance company. He had left for Libya two and half years ago.

"We spent TK 14 lakh for the journey. Of this, Tk 11 lakh was borrowed. I do not know how to pay this money back now," she said.

A minor, Arafsan Ashik is likely among those who died. His aunt Afsana spoke to this newspaper and said that they confirmed his identify from a photo being circulated.

"He was a first-year HSC student. His father is a woodworker and he was the eldest. Ashik's younger brother is only one and half years old," she said. Ashik is from Tekerhat in Madaripur.

She added that his family spent Tk 17 lakh to send him to Libya. "The broker had told us that he would be taken aboard a fishing trawler. If we had known that he would be put aboard a rubber boat we would have never sent him," said Afsana.

Tanshi is still looking for her brother Sujon Farazi who had left the same night as the boat that capsized. The family from Madaripur's Rajoir have heard a rumour that Sujon may have survived and might be one of the two in the hospital, and are holding on to that hope.

"I hope the Bangladeshi embassy can verify soon," said Tanshi.

Gazi Md Asaduzzaman Kabir, the labour counsellor at the Bangladesh mission in Libya, said they have not yet been granted permission to visit Brega in eastern Libya, the spot where all the bodies washed ashore.

"A parallel government by a rival party governs that area. Since we haven't received permission yet, we sent people from an agency we work with. That agency deals with the repatriation of dead bodies. They will visit the place and search the hospitals," he said.

The bodies retrieved so far were buried in Ajdabiya, about 40 kilometers from Brega, on Friday, as they were decomposing.