By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is observing a day of mourning on Monday for hundreds of people, mostly Pakistanis, who died when a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Greece last week.
The national flag will fly at half-mast at all important buildings.
“Expressing his grief over the tragic incident of the boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Greece resulting in the deaths of dozens of people, including Pakistanis, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced to observe a day of mourning tomorrow,” said a statement issued by the Prime Minister Office’s media wing.
Prime Minister Sharif formed a four-member inquiry committee to investigate the incident and recommend measures to prevent such tragedies in the future, his office said in a statement.
The committee, headed by the director general of the National Police Bureau, will submit its report within a week.
Prime Minister Sharif also ordered an immediate crackdown on agents engaged in people smuggling, saying they would be “severely punished.”
“The Prime Minister has given a firm directive to intensify efforts in combating individuals involved in the heinous crime of human trafficking,” his office said.
Authorities continued to search for victims and survivors of the trawler that sank on Wednesday with as many as 750 migrants on board. Only 104 survivors have been found so far from the ship that contained men, women, and children from Syria, Egypt, the Palestinian territories, and Pakistan.
Pakistan authorities arrested 10 alleged human traffickers days after the incident.
Officials said nine people had been detained in Azad Jammu and Kashmir – home to a majority of the victims – and one in Gujrat, a city that has long served as a springboard for migrants.
“The arrests were made after the police chalked out an effective strategy in the light of the information shared by the families of the victims about the persons who had trapped the victims into landing them in Europe against millions of rupees,” said Chaudhary Shaukat, a local official from Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
“They are presently under investigation for their involvement in facilitating the entire process.”
Shaukat said the suspects charged up to 3 million rupees from each person and would fly them legally first to the United Arab Emirates and then to Egypt and Libya. “From Libya, the illegal voyage started through the Mediterranean Sea.”
“They were sub-agents or agents of main human traffickers Chaudhry Zulqarnain, Talat Kiani, and Khalid Mirza, who belong to Kotli and Mirpur and are based in Libya,” he added.
“During the preliminary interrogation, the suspects made harrowing disclosures about how and for whom they operated and who else was involved in the ghastly business.”
“We are on the lookout for some other suspects as well,” Shaukat said, adding that the arrested persons would be produced before a judicial magistrate on Monday for physical remand.
Every year, thousands of young Pakistanis embark on perilous journeys attempting to enter Europe illegally in search of a better life.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs said 12 nationals had survived, but they had no information on how many were aboard the boat.
A combination of political turmoil and an economy on the brink of collapse drives tens of thousands of Pakistanis to leave the country — legally and illegally.
Young men, primarily from eastern Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, often use a route through Iran, Libya, Turkey, and Greece to unlawfully enter Europe.
Meanwhile, The Guardian quoted survivors’ leaked testimonies claiming that “Pakistanis were forced below deck, with other nationalities allowed on the top deck where they had a far greater chance of surviving the capsize.”
It also said that “new accounts from survivors indicate that women and children were forced to travel in the hold” — a large compartment or space in the lower part of a ship — as well as that “certain nationalities were condemned to the most dangerous part of the trawler.”
The Guardian cited The Observer, its sister paper, as having “learned that Pakistani nationals were also kept below deck, with crew members maltreating them when they appeared in search of fresh water or tried to escape.”
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