Days after at least 78 migrants looking to enter Greece died in a ship capsizing incident, in another similar tragic incident up to 300 Pakistani refugees are believed to be killed.
Official Sources told WION that at least 150 Pakistanis are confirmed to be dead.
Reports claimed that nearly 100 kids could have been trapped in the ship’s hold while 298 kids are still missing, according to Dunya News and News360.
Over 700 refugees were reportedly on board the ship which included over 300 from Pakistan.
Greek authorities said 104 survivors had been brought ashore so far.
There has been no official word or confirmation about this incident from Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government.
Also watch | Greece: Migrant boat tragedy leaves hundreds missing
Meanwhile, the Pakistani embassy in Greece issued a statement saying that its representatives have met the 12 Pakistani survivors in Kalamata from the June 15 shipwreck. Following that meet, DNA reports and identification reports have been obtained from the family members.
Pakistanis in Greece
In the 1970s, Greece and Pakistan signed a bilateral agreement allowing Pakistanis to gain temporary employment in Greek shipyards. Shortly after, another agreement facilitated the migration of Pakistanis to work in Greece’s textile industries.
The official number of Pakistanis in the country are stated to be around 50,000, the unofficial estimates that include the illegal migrants are as high as 400,000 to 500,000 that constitutes around 5 per cent of the total population in Greece.
Unlike most other countries, where migrants from India outnumber Pakistanis, Greece presents a different situation where the majority of people from South Asian origins are from Pakistan.
Most of the Pakistanis in the country were single, young men who had entered the country illegally with the help of human smugglers through the land route of Iran and Turkey to Greece
The four districts in Punjab, which had the largest share of migrants included Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Mandi Bahauddin.
The UN estimates there are 680,000 migrants in Libya, some looking to travel by boat to Europe and others working full-time in Libya.
The UN’s international organisation for migration said nearly 3,800 people died on migration routes within and from the Middle East and north Africa region last year, the highest number since 2017.
