Pakistan's interior minister, Rana Sanaullah, stated on Friday that "at least 350 Pakistanis were on board an overcrowded boat that sank at sea off Greece last week." The minister vowed to arrest the human smugglers responsible and prosecute them. Sanaullah noted that "the boat, which was designed to carry 400 people, had over 700 people on board when it sank," adding that "a total of 281 Pakistani families have reached out to the government for assistance." He continued, "Another 193 Pakistani families have undergone DNA testing in an effort to identify those who perished in the boat sinking incident."
The minister highlighted that "a high-level investigation is underway to identify those involved in smuggling and to arrest them, and that Pakistan is also working on proposing legal amendments to plug loopholes and ensure convictions in such cases." He clarified that "no smuggler has been convicted in the past five years, largely due to the families of the victims agreeing to pardon in exchange for a sum of money."
