The bodies of eight Bangladeshis, who died in a boat capsize in the Mediterranean Sea, reached Dhaka today.

A flight carrying the eight bodies landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 12:30pm.

The deceased are identified as Mamun Sheikh, Sajal Bairagi, Nayan Biswas, Rifat Sheikh, Sajib Kazi, Imrul Kayes Apon, Md Abdur Kaiser, and Rasel Sheikh. All are residents of Madaripur and Gopalganj.

On February 14, a Europe-bound boat carrying 53 individuals, including a sailor, capsized at 4:30am (local time) five hours after the vessel departed from the Libyan coast town of Zuwara.

A total of 44 passengers, including 27 Bangladeshis, were rescued. Other nationals on board included eight Pakistanis, five Syrians, three Egyptians, and the sailor.

Nine passengers, including eight Bangladeshis and one Pakistan national, died in the incident.

Shariful Hasan, associate director (Migration and Youth Platform) at BRAC, confirmed that 11 more Bangladeshis, who were also on the vessel, have already returned home.

He claimed that two of the Bangladeshis from Madaripur's Rajoir upazila, who returned home earlier, contacted BRAC and said the deaths of eight Bangladeshi nationals were not "an accident".

A case was filed with Airport Police Station on April 19 by Sunil Bairagi, father of deceased Sajal Bairagi. The charges include organised murder (Section 302/34) and violations of the Human Trafficking Prevention Act.

Juboraj Kazi, 24, and Mosharraf Kazi, who live in Libya, have been made accused in the case.

"They alleged that the eight Bangladeshis were killed. Since a case has been filed over the incident, I hope the details will come up in the investigation of the law enforcement agencies," Shariful said.

Following the case, two accused were arrested.

According to the case statement, Sunil Bairagi alleged his son, Sajal, was lured by the promise of a better life in Italy. Sajal's former acquaintance Juboraj and Mosharraf offered to send him to Italy legally in exchange for Tk 14 lakh.

The agreement involved an initial payment of Tk 2.5 lakh and Sajal's passport was collected by Juboraj at the Bairagi residence in Gopalganj on November 17, 2023.

He was taken to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on December 30.

Before entering the airport, Juboraj took Tk 5 lakh more in cash from Sajal. He left for Dubai at 6:00am on December 31.

But since then, Sunil has not been able to contact his son. News reports later confirmed Sajal was among the eight Bangladeshi fatalities in the Mediterranean Sea capsizing incident, the case statement said.

Sunil alleged that a gang of 20 people in collusion with each other sent the victims abroad illegally from Bangladesh in exchange for a huge amount of money, luring them with the promise of a better life.