Pakistan makes arrests after Greece boat tragedy

Pakistan authorities have arrested 10 alleged human traffickers after it emerged that many of the dozens of migrants and refugees who drowned off Greece’s coast on June 14 were from the South Asian nation.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also ordered an immediate crackdown on Sunday on agents engaged in people smuggling, saying they would be “severely punished”.

“The prime minister has given a firm directive to intensify efforts in combating individuals involved in the heinous crime of human trafficking,” his office said in a statement.

The federal investigation agency arrested the suspected human traffickers from different parts of the Islamabad-controlled part of Kashmir – also known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir – and another from Karachi airport who was trying to flee abroad, local TV Geo News reported.

Senior officer Khalid Chauhan said police picked up the suspects amid a crackdown on human traffickers. Police are interrogating them for their alleged roles in luring, trapping and sending locals abroad after extracting huge amounts of money from them.

The 10 suspected traffickers “are presently under investigation for their involvement in facilitating the entire process”, said Chaudhary Shaukat, a local official from Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Reports indicate there were at least dozens of Pakistanis onboard the trawler that sank off Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula on Wednesday, killing at least 78 people with hundreds more still missing.

As many as 750 men, women and children – also from Syria, Egypt, and the Palestinian territories – were on board the vessel, trying to reach relatives in Europe. The sinking was one of the worst disasters of its kind this year. The Greek coast guard has defended its response to the tragedy.

(Aljazeera)