Over 200 Pakistanis remain unaccounted for as migrant boat sinks near Greece
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Pakistan has obtained DNA samples from more than 200 families after an overcrowded smuggling ship sank off Greece last week, leaving more than 500 migrants missing, including dozens of Pakistanis, authorities said Thursday.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad, that the families had contacted the authorities saying they suspected their loved ones were on the boat.
Meanwhile, Pakistani police have arrested 10 more suspected traffickers, bringing the number of traffickers detained in the nationwide crackdown to 17, she said. Nearly thirty other suspects have also been arrested in the case.
However, she said the government is still unable to verify the number of Pakistanis among the dead or missing from the sinking.
The campaign followed orders from Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to the security forces to dismantle people smuggling networks in the country.
The overcrowded fishing vessel capsized last Wednesday with as many as 750 people on board. Only 104 people were rescued, including Egyptians, Pakistanis, Syrians and Palestinians, and 82 bodies were recovered.
On board the boat were an unspecified number of Afghan nationals.
Pakistanis who attempted the perilous journey to Europe — in hopes of a better life there — paid smugglers between $5,000 and $8,000, officials say, adding that some of the detained smugglers have allegedly admitted to taking money from people on board. He went down.
According to the FBI and police, most of the families who provided the DNA samples are from the country’s eastern Punjab province and the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region divided between Pakistan and India and claimed by both countries. overall.