Greece boat tragedy: Pakistan seeks DNA samples to identify victims

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) has sought DNA samples from Pakistanis whose relatives are feared to be on the fishing boat overloaded with migrants, which capsized and sank off Peloponnese in southern Greece, for identification of the victims, ARY News reported on Sunday.

Speaking on ARY News programme ‘Aitraz Hai’, FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that the details of boat accident will emerge following the investigation by Greek authorities.

She noted that the number of victims, present on the boat, has not yet been determined, adding that the people were loaded on the boat without “any registration”. “104 people have been rescued yet, out of which 12 were Pakistanis,” she added.

Moreover, the FO spokesperson said that the authorities have so far recovered 79 bodies – identities of which were still unknown as the “bodies were beyond recognition”, adding that Greek officials will conduct DNA tests to ascertain the identities.

She requested Pakis­tanis whose relatives are feared to be on the boat to send DNA samples for identification.

A short tandem repeat (STR) DNA report of the parents or children of the missing person from a recognised laboratory, along with the missing person’s identity card or passport number should be sent to the Embassy’s email addr­ess, she added.

The spokesperson further said that the Pakistani embassy in Athens met 10 survivors and were ‘in contact’ with families of the victims.

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“It will take some time to bring back the Pakistanis in Greece”, she said, noting that efforts were underway to complete the process of identification of the bodies soon.

Number of missing Pakistanis

According to the latest statistics, the number of missing persons from Gujrat has reached 47 following the boat incident in Greece.

It was learnt that six persons went missing from Goleki village, three from Qasimabad, two from Tahli, two from an area in the vicinity of the Shaheen police station, three from an area of the Saddar police station, 11 from the vicinity of the Danga police station, four from the Rehmania police station, three from the vicinity of the Kakrali police station, 10 from the Bolani police station, two from the Kot Qutbuddin police station and one from the vicinity of the Nathu Kot police station.

500 still missing, says UN

The UN human rights office said that up to 500 people are still missing from a migrant boat that sank off Greece.

The spokesman Jeremy Laurence said that large numbers of women and children were among those missing in the “horrific tragedy” that left 78 people dead. He added that the appalling loss of life underscored the need to bring people smugglers to justice.

A total of 104 passengers were rescued and sent to Kalamata, Greece.

The people rescued so far included 43 Egyptian nationals, 47 Syrian nationals, 12 Pakistani nationals, and two Palestinians, the Hellenic Coast Guard were quoted by international media outlets. Eight of those rescued were minors.