https://arab.news/r2mjm
- Pakistan’s foreign office says 12 nationals onboard the ship had been identified among other survivors
- Nine Pakistanis lost their lives in two separate shipwrecks in Italy and Libya earlier this year in February
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani parliament on Saturday directed the relevant authorities to take action against human traffickers in the country just a few days after a boat carrying more than 500 migrants, mainly from the Middle East and South Asia, capsized off the coast of Greece.
The country’s foreign office announced on Friday that 12 Pakistani nationals had been identified among the survivors of the tragedy, though it noted that it was not possible to determine how many other citizens were on the ship and had lost their lives. It mentioned at least 78 bodies that were beyond recognition, adding that DNA testing would be carried out to identify the victims.
According to the United Nations, nearly 1,000 migrants have either died or gone missing while trying to reach the European shores in rickety boats this year. The foreign office also confirmed in January that a total of nine Pakistani citizens had lost their lives in two separate shipwrecks in Italy and Libya.
“I think it’s a horrific act to put innocent people in such a situation after luring them with promises of going abroad illegally,” the speaker of the National Assembly, Raja Pervez Ashraf, said while presiding over a session of the lower house of parliament. “I would like the government to take immediate notice of this and take action.”
“Those who are involved in this despicable trade [of human trafficking] should be given exemplary punishment,” he continued.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also extended his sympathies to the families of those dead or missing in the boat accident.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families who lost their loved ones in the unfortunate ferry disaster in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece,” he wrote in a Twitter post.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) apprehended a man from the Karachi airport on Friday for his alleged involvement in the Libyan shipwreck, which killed seven Pakistanis in February.
“The arrested suspect was involved in illegally sending many Pakistanis to Libya,” an FIA spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.
“He was absconding for the last several months and was taken into custody at the Karachi airport while he was trying to flee the country and go to Azerbaijan.”
The suspect, according to the spokesperson, had been handed over to the FIA’s anti-human trafficking circle in Gujrat, Punjab.