An aerial view of the packed trawler ahead of its capsizing
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday announced that Pakistan will mark June 19 (today) as a national Day of Mourning, with flags flying at half-mast, to express its grief over the hundreds killed after a boat carrying illegal migrants capsized off the coast of Greece last week.
In a notification issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, the premier expressed his grief over the tragic incident while also constituting a high-powered committee to probe the facts of the boat capsizing as well as details any gaps in Pakistan’s law enforcement that facilitates human trafficking.
According to Greek authorities, 78 people are confirmed dead in the capsizing of a boat that reportedly had 400 to 750 people onboard. They said 104 people had been rescued, but hundreds remained missing with little hope of their recovery nearly a week after the trawler carrying illegal migrants sank in the Mediterranean Sea near the Greek coast. Among the passengers on the boat, per survivors, were 400 Pakistanis, 200 Egyptians and 150 Syrians, including women and children.
Amidst mounting outrage and anguish over the tragedy, the prime minister has constituted a four-member high-level committee to investigate the incident. Led by National Police Bureau Director General Ehsan Sadiq, the committee includes as its members Foreign Affairs Additional Secretary (Africa) Javed Ahmed Umrani, AJK Police Region Poonch Deputy Inspector General Sardar Zaheer Ahemed and FIA Joint Secretary Faisal Nisar Chaudhry. According to a notification, the committee has been tasked with determining the facts of the boat capsizing and identifying loopholes and lapses in the legal and enforcement mechanism in Pakistan that has exposed citizens to the consequences of human trafficking in this particular case, and similar incidents of the past.
The committee would also review the existing legal framework, enforcement measures, and international coordination to prevent, control and punish human smuggling and to prepare short- and long-term recommendations, including legislation, enforcement measures, awareness campaigns and improvement of national and international coordination to apprehend agents, facilitators, masterminds and racketeers and for the eradication of human trafficking. The committee shall submit its report within a week.
“Sympathies of the entire nation, including me, are with the families of the deceased,” read a press release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office. It said Sharif had also directed authorities concerned to tighten the noose around all elements involved in human trafficking and ordered an immediate crackdown on “agents” involved in the heinous crime.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 12 Pakistanis—five each from Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin and the remainder from Sialkot—were among the survivors of the trawler. In statements to media, they have said the majority of Pakistanis on board were either from rural areas of central Punjab or Pakistan-administered Kashmir. They have further alleged that the boat started to capsize after a smaller boat tried to tow it, adding rescue efforts came too late to save the hundreds packed onto the trawler.
A report published by U.K. daily The Guardian alleges that Pakistani nationals onboard were packed below deck and often mistreated by crew during their journey. It said these people had the least chance of survival, as they had no path to escape when the boat sank. It claims that the situation on the boat was already “bleak” even before it sank, as six people had died when it ran out of freshwater en route. Citing one survivor, it said the boat had been drifting for several days even before the capsizing after its engine failed.
The report has also raised questions about the role played by Greek officials, with survivors alleging the boat capsized after their coastguards attempted to attack a towline. Greece has denied these claims, with officials maintaining the rope was only attached to “stabilize” the boat.
Arrests
According to local media, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday arrested one of the human traffickers allegedly involved in sending people abroad illegally as part of its ongoing crackdown. Earlier, officials had said they had taken into custody at least 10 alleged human traffickers, including nine from Pakistan-administered Kashmir and one from Gujrat.