Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday announced that the total number of Pakistanis killed in the Greek shipwrecks last week had risen to five.

At least five migrants drowned after their wooden boat, carrying many Pakistanis, capsized off Greece’s southern island of Gavdos, the coastguard said on Saturday, with witnesses saying many were still missing as search operations continued.

In separate incidents, a Malta-flagged cargo vessel rescued 47 migrants from a boat sailing about 40 nautical miles off Gavdos, while a tanker rescued another 88 migrants some 28 nautical miles off the tiny island in Greece’s south.

Four Pakis­tani citizens were among those killed in the migrant shipwrecks off the coast of Greece, the Foreign Office confirmed on Monday.

Addressing the federal cabinet meeting in Islamabad today, PM Shehbaz condoled the incident, saying: “Illegal migrants were aboard a boat that sank in Greece and sadly five Pakistanis drowned in that while around over 40 were rescued.”

He recounted previous incidents of Pakistani migrants being killed in shipwrecks as well.

Terming the situation a “serious challenge”, the premier said he was convening a meeting in the coming days, comprising high-level officials, to review past events and decide the future course of action.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference in Athens on the situation last night, Pakistan’s ambassador to Greece, Amir Aftab Qureshi, said five boats were involved in the various incidents, out of which three were carrying Pakistans. He said the three boats departed from Libya’s Tobruk city on December 9, 11 and 12.

Qureshi said the vessels were no more than 10-metre fishing boats made of plastic and fibreglass which ordinarily could carry a maximum of 15-20 people. “Sadly, those small boats were sent in international waters,” he said.

The ambassador added that the Dec 9 boat had 45 people aboard, the one on Dec 11 was carrying approximately 83 people, and the one on Dec 12 had 47 people.

He added that the boats were already worn down when they reached near Gavdos, adding that the Greek coastguard, with the help of international multi-flag commercial vessels, began rescuing people from the boats.

He said that migrants aboard the Dec 9 and 12 boats were saved before they overturned.

Qureshi said the operation took place between the night of Dec 13 and 14, explaining that the bulk of Pakistanis were aboard the boat that set out on Dec 11 with 83 people.

The ambassador said six Pakistanis were saved from the Dec 9 boat and five from the Dec 12 boat.

“A total of 39 people were saved from the Dec 11 boat with 36 of them being Pakistanis,” he said, adding that the embassy immediately dispatched a team when learned about the incident.

The team, he said, was still present at the site and a search and rescue operation was underway to find the missing persons.

“It is our utmost effort that we at least retrieve the bodies of those who could not be saved and send them back to the country,” Qureshi added.

The ambassador said the embassy team had contacted all 47 of the remaining Pakistanis who were rescued, calling on parents to not send their minor children on such “dangerous trips” while describing the difficulties faced by those aboard the boats.

Qureshi said the majority of the Pakistanis were from places such as Mandi Bahauddin, Gujrat, Gujranwala, and Sialkot.

The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Gujranwala Zone has approached the parents of the deceased to ascertain facts about the network involved in sending their progeny abroad. However, it was learnt that the parents had declined to lodge any complaint against the agent.

The FIA’s Gujranwala Director Abdul Qadir Qamar had told Dawn that he had already issued directions to the circle concerned to lodge a formal case against the human trafficking network.

Human traffickers have now started using air routes to send their clients to Libya, from where they are dispatched to Italy via treacherous Mediterranean crossings.

Senior FIA officials claimed that poverty and unemployment were not the only motivating factors behind human trafficking, saying that it had become a kind of social trend or status symbol in Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Wazirabad and adjoining areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir to send family members abroad by any means.

For thousands, of migrants, heading to Europe from the Middle East, the long route to a new life lies through Greece and the Western Balkans. Between 2014 and the end of 2023, IOM’s Missing Migrants Project recorded over 63,000 deaths and disappearances on migration routes.

Year-to-year, 2023 saw an increase in deaths across the Mediterranean, Africa and Asia, with an unprecedented number of lives lost across the latter two regions.