Migrants to Europe: Bodies of 8 drowned Pakistanis brought home

LAHORE: The bodies of eight Pakistanis who had drowned as their boat capsized off the coast of Greece and Italy have been brought back to Pakistan.

The bodies of the eight Pakistanis – Faisal Nadeem from Kharian, Mohammad Nawaz and Mohammad Imran from Mandi Bahauddin, Mohammad Umair Raza, Hassan Saeed, Akbar Ali and Abdul Maroof from Gujrat, and Mohammad Imran from Jhang – were handed over their families in different parts of Punjab province.

The unfortunate Pakistanis were among about 250 people of different nationalities who had drowned trying to illegally travel to Europe.

The boat was reported to have drowned on August 26 after about 400 migrants, hoping to reach Italy, had embarked on the dangerous journey through the treacherous waters on two small boats from Libya.

Those on board had been from sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, Syria, Morocco and Bangladesh. The journey proved to be the last for over 200 migrants, 15 of whom were Pakistanis.

Over 100 bodies washed up to the shore of Libya's western town of Zuwara, while more than 200 were rescued by European ships. The bodies and the rescued migrants were taken to Sicily in Italy.

The bodies of eight of the 15 unfortunate Pakistanis were brought to Pakistan via air at the Lahore airport today, while the other five Pakistanis were buried in Italy.