FIA ‘starts’ operation against human smugglers.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is in contact with the Italian authorities regarding the shipwreck deaths and the missing Pakistanis, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
“A senior Embassy official today met 16 Pakistani survivors of the capsized vessel. They seemed in good physical condition. According to them there were 20 Pakistanis on the ship. The embassy is in close contact with Italian authorities to verify status of the 4 missing Pakistanis,” said Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch.
She added: “Embassy of Pakistan in Italy continues to vigorously follow the case of Pakistanis aboard the vessel that capsized off the coast of Italy yesterday (February 26).”
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said over two dozen Pakistanis were believed to be among 59 people who drowned when a boat carrying migrants to Europe crashed against rocks near the southern Italian coast.
At least 81 people survived February 26 accident, with 20 hospitalised including one person in intensive care, Italian authorities said.
The wooden boat, which sailed from Turkey, is said to have carried people from Iran and Afghanistan as well. “The reports of the drowning of over two dozen Pakistanis in a boat tragedy in Italy are deeply concerning and worrisome,” Sharif said in a statement, adding, “I have directed the foreign office to ascertain facts as early as possible and take the nation into confidence.”
Turkey is part of one of the most-used routes for human smugglers to smuggle migrants into Europe, who at times travel by road, walk for miles and endure being locked in ship containers for days.
Italy is one of the main landing points for the migrants trying to enter Europe by sea, with many seeking to travel on to northern European nations.
The United Nations Missing Migrants Project has registered more than 17,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014. More than 220 have died or disappeared this year, it estimates. Yesterday, the government called for a crackdown on the global human trafficking network after at least 40 Pakistan nationals drowned in a migrant shipwreck near the southern Italian coast.
The death toll included dozens of Pakistanis, the Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Sajid Hussain Turi said. “A crackdown on the criminal network of human trafficking worldwide is the need of the hour,” Turi added. “So far, thousands of people including children and women have lost their lives around the world. The Pakistani government will formulate a comprehensive strategy and launch a crackdown on human trafficking networks, he said. “Since April 2022, over 600,000 people have been sent abroad for jobs … People are requested not to fall prey to human trafficking.”
In 2022, 105,000 migrants arrived on Italian shores, around 38,000 more than the previous year, according to figures from the Italian Interior Ministry. Meanwhile, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has launched a probe into the migrants tragedy killing at least 62 people among some Pakistanis after a wooden sailing boat capsized off the southern coast of Italy on Sunday last.
The FIA has initiated the probe after contacting the families of the victims and different teams have been formed to arrest the facilitators and human smugglers who are involved in this crime, an official of the agency said on Monday. According to the initial investigations conducted by the agency, most of the victims belonged to district Gujrat who had chosen the dangerous journey to reach Europe in search of their better future.
Raids are being conducted at different places to arrest the culprits, the official said.
