Police in Pakistan make arrests in Greece boat disaster

Raids have been carried out and 14 people detained in connection with alleged trafficking of migrants

Paramedics of the Greek National Emergency Ambulance Service transfer a boat disaster survivor to their ambulance in Kalamata. EPA

Police in Pakistan have arrested 14 people in connection with the alleged trafficking of migrants who were killed last week after an overcrowded fishing boat capsized off Greece.

Hundreds were aboard the boat, which is believed to have sailed from Libya, carrying Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians.

The Pakistani government has ordered an inquiry into a network thought to be involved in the trafficking of citizens, a statement from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's office said.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families who lost their loved ones,” Mr Sharif said.

Twenty-one of those who died came from the Kotli district in Pakistan's part of the Himalayan Kashmir region, police official Riaz Mughal said.

Two of the 12 Pakistanis who survived the sinking also came from the same area.

“We have already arrested 10 suspects who are part of a human trafficking network that sent these people to Europe,” senior regional police officer Tahir Mahmood Qureshi said.

“We are hunting for more suspects.”

Some had already been traced and arrests planned, while others had gone into hiding, he said.

A further four people were arrested in the eastern Punjab province, a senior official at Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency said.

Witness accounts suggest that between 400 and 750 people were packed on the fishing boat that sank about 80km from the southern Greek town of Pylos.

Around 100 migrants rescued after Greece shipwreck – in pictures

Survivors of the shipwreck outside a warehouse in the port at Kalamata. AP

Former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, currently running for office again, arrives at the port. Getty Images

Kassem Abo Zeed holds up a photograph with his wife, Ezra, who is missing after the fishing boat carrying migrants sank off southern Greece. AP

Some of the surviving migrants outside the hangar where they are being temporarily housed. Getty Images

Survivors inside the warehouse. EPA

Mahmoud, an Egyptian migrant now living in Italy, arrives to find information about the 10 people he knew on the boat. Getty Images

Survivors arrive by yacht at the port in Kalamata, about 240km south-west of Athens. AP

Authorities said at least 32 people died after a fishing boat carrying dozens of migrants capsized and sank off the southern coast of Greece. AP

Survivors receive first aid at the port in Kalamata. AP

About 100 people were rescued and taken to the town of Kalamata. AP

A warehouse at the port. AP

Survivors leave the yacht. AP

Greek authorities said 104 survivors and 78 bodies were brought ashore in the immediate aftermath.

Hopes were fading of finding any more people alive.

Meanwhile, a court in southern Greece on Monday postponed a hearing for nine Egyptian men accused of being migrant smugglers in a case involving the sinking of the fishing trawler.

The court in Kalamata postponed the hearing until Tuesday to provide them and their lawyers with time to review the testimonies of nine Syrian and Pakistani survivors, given over the weekend.

The Egyptians, who were reportedly identified as members of a smuggling ring by some of the survivors, face charges of participating in a criminal organisation.

Relatives of the passengers who had been on board gathered outside the courthouse, shouting the names of their loved ones, Greek media reported.

Other relatives arrived at a migrant holding centre in Malakasa, north of Athens, trying to find relatives who they knew were on the boat.

Zohaib Shamraiz, a Pakistani living in Barcelona, does not know if his 40-year-old uncle, Nadeem Muhamm, survived.

“I spoke to him five minutes before he got on the boat. I told him not to go. I was afraid. He said he had no choice," Mr Shamraiz said.

When he last spoke to his uncle, Mr Muhamm described being herded onto the ship with others by smugglers carrying swords, Mr Shamraiz said.

“He told me there were too many people but if the [passengers] didn’t get on the ship, they would kill them.”

Mr Shamraiz travelled to Greece on Monday attempting to track his uncle and to provide a DNA sample to crossmatch those retrieved from recovered bodies.

His uncle, who was travelling alone, is married and has three young children in Pakistan.

In a separate incident on Monday, Greece's coastguard said 68 people were rescued in the eastern Aegean Sea after their sailing boat go into distress while off the coast of the island of Leros.

The sailing boat, which is believed to have left Turkey carrying migrants hoping to reach Greece, issued a distress call early on Monday, and the passengers were picked up by a merchant ship before being transferred to a coastguard vessel, the agency said.

All were safely transported to Leros, and there were no reports of any injuries or people missing.