PM Shehbaz orders FO to obtain facts about casualties of Pakistanis in a boat tragedy near Italy
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif today ordered the Foreign Office to gather facts about two dozen of Pakistanis who died in a boat tragedy near Italy.
On Sunday, about 59 migrants died in the sea when an overcrowded boat crashed in the deep sea near Italy. Most of the victims of the boat’s tragedy belonged to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The over-crowded boat left from Izmir, Turkiye three days ago, but it could not reach its destination _ Italy.
Italian officials said that 59 migrants, including 28 Pakistanis, died after their overloaded boat sank early on Sunday in stormy seas off Italy’s southern Calabria region.
According to the Pakistani embassy in Rome — the capital of Italy — besides others, 40 Pakistan were on board the ill-fated boat.
The mission also said that the bodies of 28 Pakistanis had been fished out of the sea by the rescue officials, however, 12 more are still missing.
The Pakistani officials further said that they are in contact with the Italian authorities, volunteers, and maritime agencies in this regard.
The embassy added that it is also in touch with the Pakistani community in the Calabria region and providing them with the latest information about the sad incident.
Meanwhile, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said, “We are closely following the reports about the possible presence of Pakistanis in the vessel that has capsized off the coast of Italy.”
Taking to Twitter, she said that the Pakistani embassy in Rome is in the process of ascertaining facts from the Italian authorities.
Earlier, the coastguard service said, “43 bodies” had been found along the coast and “80 people recovered alive, including some who managed to reach the shore after the sinking”.
The vessel left Turkey a few days ago with migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries. The boat crashed in stormy weather near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria in Italy.
Italian officials arrested one survivor under migrant trafficking charges, the Guardia di Finanza customs police said.
Cutro’s mayor, Antonio Ceraso, said women and children were among the dead. The exact numbers for how many children had died were not yet available.
His voice cracking up, Ceraso told the SkyTG24 news channel that he had seen “a spectacle that you would never want to see in your life, a gruesome sight that stays with you all your life”.
Wreckage from the wooden gulet, a Turkish sailing boat, was strewn across a large stretch of coast.
Quoting the survivors, Curra said the vessel left Izmir in eastern Turkey three or four days ago, with 140 to 150 people on board.
“Many of these migrants came from Afghanistan and Iran, fleeing conditions of great hardship”, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said.
