Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Reuters
Reuters
World
By Asif Shahzad

Four Pakistanis migrants missing after Italy shipwreck - foreign office

Carabinieri officers work at the beach where bodies believed to be of refugees were found after a shipwreck, in Cutro, the eastern coast of Italy’s Calabria region, Italy, February 26, 2023. REUTERS/Giuseppe Pipita

Pakistan's foreign office said on Monday that four Pakistani citizens were missing and 16 had survived after a boat carrying migrants to Europe crashed on rocks near the southern Italian coast, killing dozens.

At least 62 people were killed in Sunday's disaster, according to Italian authorities and rescuers. Eighty people had survived, but more were believed missing based on survivors' estimates of up to 200 people being on board.

Remains of a ship are seen along the beach where bodies of suspected believed to be refugees were found after a shipwreck, in Cutro, the eastern coast of Italy’s Calabria region, Italy, February 26, 2023. REUTERS/Giuseppe Pipita

Pakistan's foreign office said its diplomats in Italy had met with 16 Pakistani survivors who said 20 Pakistanis in total were on the ship and four remained missing.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had said in a tweet on Monday morning that reports suggested more than two dozen Pakistanis had drowned and that he had asked the foreign office to make checks.

Rescuers and U.N. agencies said many Afghans had also been travelling on the wooden sailboat, which had come from Turkey.

Rescuers recover a body after a suspected migrant boat is wrecked and bodies believed to be of refugees were found in Cutro, the eastern coast of Italy's Calabria region, Italy, February 26, 2023. REUTERS/Giuseppe Pipita

Afghanistan's foreign office and refugee ministry spokespeople did not respond to request for comment.

The U.N. refugee agency said that last year people travelling from Turkey made up about 15% of arrivals to Italy by sea and that nearly half of those using the route were from Afghanistan.

Turkey is part of one of the most-used routes for human smugglers to bring migrants into Europe, who at times travel by road, walk for miles and endure being locked in ship containers for days.

Rescuers work at the beach where bodies of refugees were found after a shipwreck, in Cutro, the eastern coast of Italy's Calabria region, Italy, February 26, 2023, in this screen grab taken from a Reuters TV video. REUTERS TV via REUTERS

Italy is one of the main landing points for migrants trying to enter Europe by sea, with many seeking to travel on to northern European nations.

The United Nations Missing Migrants Project has registered more than 17,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014. More than 220 have died or disappeared this year, it estimates.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Charlotte Greenfield in Kabul; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Bill Berkrot)

FILE PHOTO: Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaks during the COP27 climate summit in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 8, 2022. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.