Pakistani town mourns 24 of its own missing in Greece shipwreck

June 21, 2023

The sinking of a migrant boat in Greece turned into a tragedy in Pakistan, leaving families inconsolable, such as in Bandli, a small town from which 24 young people were from who could be among the hundreds of drowned.

In recent days in Bandli, relatives of the missing have submitted DNA samples to help identify the 82 dead from the shipwreck, which occurred on the night of June 13-14 47 nautical miles (87 km) off the coasts of the Peloponnese peninsula.

Processions of visitors came and went to the homes of desperate families in this town of 15,000 people located four hours drive southeast of Islamabad, in the part of Kashmir administered by Pakistan.

Relatives of the disappeared remained seated, prostrate, in the streets. As if to maintain a vain hope, the funeral has not yet taken place.

Shahnaz Bibi told AFP that he spoke by phone to his son Inaam Shafaat, 20, a day before the old and overloaded trawler left Libya for Mediterranean waters, on the most dangerous migration route in the world.

“At night, he told me that the weather was not clear. I told him not to get on the boat, but he did not listen to me,” said Ms. Bibi, in her 50s, after giving a DNA sample at a local hospital.

“He said to me: Mother, I leave you under the protection of Allah. Pray for me,” she adds, her voice hoarse from crying, wiping away a few tears with her shawl.

The Greek authorities do not know exactly how many people were on board the boat when the sinking took place, one of the worst in the eastern Mediterranean in recent years.

The World Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimate that between 400 and 750 passengers were on the trawler, including women and children.

Hundreds were believed to have come from Pakistan, mainly from the provinces of Punjab and Kashmir.

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said on Wednesday that DNA samples had been collected from the families of 108 missing persons.

Sarfraz Khan Virk, a senior FIA official in Lahore, told reporters that in the past after such tragedies, many families refused to speak to the authorities.

“They told us: we want to send another son (to Europe) and we will suffer if you open a case,” he said.

“There are families who had sent a first brother to Italy and after a failed attempt for the second brother, they want to send the third. So we have a lot of problems and people are not cooperating with us,” he said. he adds.

Pakistan is struggling with serious economic difficulties: galloping inflation, the depreciation of the rupee, limited imports and industrial production.

Pakistani Kashmir, where Bandli sits amidst verdant hills, has historically been the starting point for many migrants, seeking a better life elsewhere in defiance of the risks.

Many human traffickers operate in this region. The authorities say they have arrested 16, suspected of having been linked to the Greek drama.

“What happened to our brother shouldn’t happen to anyone else. Human trafficking is on the rise, it won’t stop,” said Waheed Wazir, 38, whose younger brother Imran, 32 , is missing.

“Human traffickers who are arrested should not be released. They should be publicly punished so that no one dares to do something like this in the future,” he says.

A senior district administrative official, Sardar Mushtaq Ahmad, confirmed that 24 local people are missing.

Families in Bandli continue to cling to the last words heard from their deceased loved ones, hoping for a miracle.

“My son told me that they were putting them on the boat. The weather was not good,” said Tasleem Bibi, 48, already resigned to the death of her 20-year-old son, Akash Gulzar.

“His voice gradually died out and he couldn’t speak.”