Amidst the social media storm of the Titanic Submersible catastrophe, The Greece Boat Tragedy that claimed 500+ lives in the Mediterranean was deserted.
As the news channels across the globe ran show after show about the billionaires and businessmen in OceanGate’s submersible, the 500+ underwhelming refugee lives lost went unnoticed.
Five men, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, a British billionaire Hamish Harding, the CEO of OceanGate Stockton Rush, and a French dive expert, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, passed away while on an expedition to explore the ruins of the Titanic Ship that sank in 1912.
They boarded OceanGate’s Submersible at 250,000 US Dollars a pop last Sunday, the submersible was criticized multiple times for its poor build and lack of safety checks by outside experts.
The submersible is assumed to have imploded as the US Navy confirmed the detection of sounds consistent with an implosion, killing the men inside almost immediately.
While this story traveled around the globe in hours, the story that claimed hundreds of lives didn’t attract even half the attention, and was severely under-reported.
Last week, an overcrowded fishing trawler packed with 750 migrants (from Syria, Egypt, Palestine, and Pakistan) was trying to reach Italy and Europe.
It was reported that the passengers ran out of food and water, and some were unconscious by June 13th. The captain allegedly abandoned the boat as the authorities got involved.
The authorities tried to help the migrants by arranging food and water, but the passengers were reportedly unwilling to cooperate or communicate. At this point, the boat was sailing at a stable pace.
By the dawn of Wednesday, the authorities reported that the trawler began oscillating violently from side to side, and then capsized.
People on the trawler were thrown into the sea, the trawler flipped with people on board. Men, women, and children were trapped below deck. And within minutes the trawler sank.
The rescue mission saved 104 lives with the help of a yacht nearby, and 78 bodies were retrieved with almost 500+ people missing and assumed dead.
This incident triggered a broader conversation about human trafficking in Pakistan and several arrests were carried out. The reports mention more than a dozen arrests of the alleged human traffickers who charged millions of rupees to send Pakistan nationals out of the country.
FIA arrested Sajid Mehmood at Karachi airport, a key suspect, while he was trying to flee the country.
