It was last week that the ship with around 750 migrants on board capsized and sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece.
A large part of the passengers came from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt. According to an investigative body in Karachi, which has collected information from the migrants’ families, at least 209 Pakistanis have been affected by the accident, writes the Reuters news agency.
Arrests in Pakistan
According to authorities in the country, however, it may be around 300 victims from Pakistan, reports CNN.
At least 29 people in Pakistan are said to have been arrested on suspicion of human smuggling in connection with the accident.
Only 104 people have been rescued after the accident. The official death toll still stands at 82 people.
Black year in the Mediterranean
The UN migration agency IOM is now sharply criticizing the fact that there are no safe routes to Europe and that the boats that the migrants are forced to travel in are of a very poor standard.
– These boats are very old, cramped, unseaworthy and overloaded with people. In fact, all of these boats must, according to the law of the sea, be considered unseaworthy. They must be considered boats in distress, says spokesperson Flavio di Giacomo.
New accident off Gran Canaria
According to IOM figures, around 1,000 people had died on their way to Europe before the accident off the coast of Greece last week. However, the dark figure is considered to be very large.
On Thursday, another fatal accident occurred when a boat with migrants capsized and sank off the coast of Gran Canaria. At least 39 people are said to have drowned, reports Reuters.