Pakistani authorities announced on Sunday June 18 that they had arrested ten people suspected of being involved in human trafficking. This announcement comes a few days after the death of dozens of migrants in the sinking of a dilapidated and crowded boat off the coast of Greece.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered a crackdown on “individuals engaged in the heinous crime of human trafficking” and promised that the culprits would be “severely punished”, according to a statement from his office.
Pakistani migrants were on board the trawler which capsized and then sank in fifteen minutes off the Peloponnese on Wednesday morning, killing at least 78 people and the disappearance of hundreds of others. Twelve Pakistanis are among the survivors, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry reported on Saturday, although it does not know how many of its nationals were on board.
More than 200 Pakistanis aboard the trawler
According to Pakistani media, their number could be more than 300. They were more than 200, an immigration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The estimated total number of people on board is between 400 and 750, according to the International Organization for Migration and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Nine people “involved in human smuggling operations” were arrested in the Pakistani region of Kashmir, where the majority of the victims originated. Another was arrested in Gujrat, Punjab, a city that has long been a breeding ground for candidates for departure. Those apprehended “are currently being investigated for their involvement in facilitating the whole process,” Chaudhary Shaukat, a Kashmir official, told AFP. A national day of mourning will be observed in Pakistan on Monday, authorities said.
On the Greek side, nine people were arrested on Thursday, June 15, port authorities announced. Of Egyptian nationality, they are suspected of being smugglers.
Every year, thousands of young Pakistanis embark on perilous crossings to Europe, where they attempt to enter illegally in search of a better life, fleeing political unrest and an economy on the verge of collapse. The young men, mainly from Punjab (in the East) and the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (in the North-West), often take the route from Iran, Libya, Turkey and Greece to enter Europe illegally.
