Islamabad: Emergency workers have recovered the bodies of 16 Pakistanis after a boat capsized off the coast of Libya, with 10 others believed to be missing, Pakistan's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

Thirty-seven people survived the accident, according to authorities.

The ministry first reported the accident on Monday. It said 63 Pakistanis had been onboard the vessel and 10 are still missing, according to unconfirmed reports.

"So far 16 dead bodies have been recovered and their Pakistani nationalities established on the basis of their passports," a spokesperson for Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"There are 37 survivors including 1 in hospital and 33 in police custody."

A team from Pakistan's embassy in Tripoli visited the coastal city of Zawiya to meet with local officials and those from Zawiya hospital.

"The Embassy in Tripoli is in the process of gathering further information and maintaining contact with the local authorities," the statement added.

Each year thousands of Pakistanis pay large sums to traffickers to launch risky and illegal journeys to Europe, where they hope to find work and send funds to support families back home.

Pakistanis are frequently among those drowned on crammed boats which sink on the Mediterranean Sea separating North Africa from Europe -- the world's deadliest migrant route.

An official from the Federal Investigation Agency, speaking anonymously to AFP in 2023, estimated Pakistanis attempt 40,000 illegal trips every year.

In June that year the Mediterranean witnessed one of its worst migrant shipwrecks when a rusty and overloaded trawler sank overnight. It was carrying more than 750 people -- up to 350 of them Pakistanis according to Islamabad -- but only 82 bodies were ever recovered.

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