The Foreign Office announced on Monday that four Pakistanis had been murdered in a Greek shipwreck last week.
The coast guard said on Saturday that at least five migrants perished when their wooden boat carrying numerous Pakistanis overturned off the southern island of Gavdos in Greece. As search efforts proceeded, witnesses reported that numerous people were still unaccounted for. Separately, a tanker saved 88 migrants approximately 28 nautical miles off the small island in southern Greece, and a cargo ship flying the flag of Malta saved 47 migrants from a boat about 40 nautical miles off Gavdos.
A day ago, the FO stated that 47 Pakistanis were rescued from the incidents, while one national was among the fatalities.
However, the FO added in a statement today: “We announce with deep sorrow that four Pakistani nationals have been identified among the dead in Saturday’s incidents of capsized boats in the south of Crete Island of Greece, as per the latest information shared by the Greek authorities.”
The FO further stated that in order to assist survivors and repatriate the deceased, the Pakistani embassy in Athens was in communication with Greek authorities.
In 2015-2016, around 1 million individuals arrived on Greece’s islands, primarily on inflatable dinghies, making it a preferred entry point to the European Union for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Over the past year, there have been more incidents involving migrant boats and shipwrecks off the little neighbor Gavdos and Crete, which are relatively remote in the central Mediterranean.
An overcrowded ship collapsed and sank in international waters outside the coastal town of Pylos in southwest Greece in June 2023, killing hundreds of migrants. At least 209 Pakistanis were on board, making it one of the deadliest boat accidents in Mediterranean history.
Two migrant boats sank in the Mediterranean off the coasts of two cities in western Libya in April of that year, killing dozens of people, including Pakistanis.
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