Greece boat crash: FO releases list of rescued Pakistani people

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) has released a list of rescued Pakistani people in the capsizing incident of a fishing boat in Greece, wherein more than 500 migrants have been presumed drowned, ARY News reported.

These people include; Muhammad Adnan Bashir S/o Muhammad Bashir, District Kotli, Haseeb Ur Rehman S/o Habib ur Rehman, District Kotli, Muhammad Hamza S/o Abdul Ghafoor, District Gujranwala, Azmat Khan S/o Muhammad Saleeho, District Gujrat, Muhammad Sunny S/o Farooq Ahmed District Sheikhupura, Zahid Akbar S/o Akbar Ali District Sheikhupura, Mehtab Ali S/o Muhammad Ashraf, District Mandi Bahauddin, Rana Husnain S/o Rana Naseer Ahmad District Sialkot, Usman Siddique S/o Muhammad Siddique, District Gujrat, Zeeshan Sarwar S/o Ghulam Sarwar, District Gujranwala, Irfan Ahmed S/o Shafi (Hospitlized) and Imran Arain S/o Maqbool (Hospitalized).

A team of the Embassy of Pakistan has visited them. The Embassy is in close contact with Greek authorities for recovery of the missing and confirmation/identification of the deceased.

Earlier in the day, FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that the Pakistan Mission in Greece remained in contact with the local authorities for identification and recovery of Pakistani nationals among the deceased and providing relief to the survivors.

“Our Mission also remains in contact with the Greek authorities in the identification process of the 78 recovered bodies. This identification process will take place through DNA-matching with close family members (parents and children only),” the spokesperson further said.

Families of likely passengers on board the ill-fated boat were requested to contact Pak Mission in Greece on the 24/7 helpline numbers for verification purposes.

They were also requested to share DNA reports from authenticated laboratories and the identity documents of the passenger at ‘[email protected]’

The death toll in Wednesday’s disaster could run to many hundreds as witness accounts suggested that between 400 and 750 people had packed the fishing boat that sank about 50 miles (80 km) from the southern Greek town of Pylos.

Greek authorities have said 104 survivors and 78 bodies of the dead were brought ashore in the immediate aftermath. Hopes were fading of finding any more people alive.

Most of the people on board were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan, Greek government officials have said.