Bodies of 28 Pakistanis found after migrant boat sinks in Italy

• A vessel capsized in Calabria off the coast of Italy
• Pakistani migrants were aboard the wooden ship
• Bodies of 28 Pakistanis have been found

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office on Sunday said it was closely following the reports about the possible presence of Pakistanis in the vessel that had capsized off the coast of Italy.

In a tweet on the social media platform Twitter, it said, “the embassy of Pakistan in Rome is in the process of ascertaining facts from the Italian authorities.”

Pakistani Embassy in Rome said that the bodies of 28 Pakistanis aboard the boat have been found. It added that there reports of 40 Pakistanis onboard the sinking boat, 12 are still missing. The embassy said it is in contact with Italian authorities and maritime agencies.

Pakistan Embassy is also in contact with the Pakistani community and volunteers in Calabria. It said the embassy can be contact for any further information.

At least 45 including some children were dead when a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants crashed against rocks on the southern Italian coast on Sunday.

The vessel had set sail from Turkey several days ago with migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries, and crashed in stormy weather near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria.

The provisional death toll stood at 45, provincial government official Manuela Curra told local media. She said 81 people survived and 22 of them were taken to hospital.

Cutro’s mayor, Antonio Ceraso, said women and children were among the dead. Exact numbers for how many children had died were not yet available.

The wreckage from the wooden gulet, a Turkish sailing boat, was strewn across a large stretch of coast. Curra said the vessel left Izmir in eastern Turkey three or four days ago, adding that survivors had said some 140 to 150 were on board.

The survivors were mostly from Afghanistan, as well as a few from Pakistan and a couple from Somalia, she said, adding that identifying the nationalities of the dead was harder. “Many of these migrants came from Afghanistan and Iran, fleeing conditions of great hardship”, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed “deep sorrow” for the deaths. She vowed to block migrant sea departures to prevent such disasters.

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