Seven arrested in Pakistan in connection with Greece migrant boat tragedy

Pakistani authorities have arrested seven alleged human trafficking ring key figures following the sinking of an overcrowded migrant boat off Greece that has left an estimated 500 people feared dead.

The ring is accused of being engaged in smuggling people from Pakistan to Europe.The arrests have taken place over the past two days, as part of a government crackdown on traffickers, according to police.

Thirty other suspects were arrested over the past few days in Pakistan and were being questioned for their role in facilitating smuggling activities.

Police continued raids across the country on Wednesday, in an attempt to arrest all involved in the migrant ship disaster.

Pakistan's intelligence agencies are also helping local police in tracking smugglers who went underground.

Each of those who tried to make the perilous journey to Europe - hoping for a better life - paid the smugglers between $5,000 to $8,000, Pakistani authorities said.

The boat which capsized off the Greek coast - while carrying as many as 750 people - on June 14 is one of the Mediterranean's deadliest migrant shipwrecks.

Only 104 men - Egyptians, Pakistanis, Syrians and Palestinians - survived, and 82 bodies were recovered.

On Wednesday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said efforts to dismantle trafficking rings would continue. He said Pakistan would seek the help of Interpol and other nations in tracking and arresting traffickers in hopes of preventing more tragedies at sea.

It was not immediately clear how many Pakistan migrants were on board the vessel and are still missing.

So far, 150 relatives of missing people from Pakistan who are believed to have been on the ship have given DNA samples for cross-referencing with the recovered bodies.

Following accounts accusing Greek authorities of not acting swiftly to rescue the migrants, anger and frustration prevailed among the relatives of the dead and missing.

Officials in Athens said passengers refused help and insisted on proceeding to Italy, adding that it would have been too dangerous to try and evacuate hundreds of unwilling people from an overcrowded ship.

In sworn testimonies over the weekend, survivors described shocking conditions on the five-day journey. Most of the passengers were denied food and water, and those who couldn’t bribe the crew to get out of the hold were beaten if they tried to reach deck level.

Some Pakistani survivors also shared similar accounts with their families over the phone.

The migrant ship sank near the deepest part of the Mediterranean, where depths of up to 17,000 feet (5,200 meters) could hamper any effort to locate a sunken vessel.

Human rights groups say a European Union crackdown on smuggling has forced people to take longer, more dangerous routes to reach safe countries.

EU migration chief, Ylva Johansson said it was the "worst ever tragedy" of its kind in the Mediterranean sea.

She said: “We saw this new modus operandi starting in the beginning of this year. We’ve seen an increase with 600% along this route from the eastern part of Libya towards EU or mainly towards Italy,” Johansson told a news conference in Stockholm.

She said it appears the vessel was "an empty fishing boat leaving from Egypt, going to the eastern part of Libya, picking up maybe 750 migrants," before embarking on the deadly crossing toward Europe.

Noting that the number of people on the ship had not yet been confirmed, Johansson said the shipwreck could be “the worst ever tragedy that we’ve seen actually in the Mediterranean."

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