Illegals Starved to Death at Sea

(Islamabad, Pakistan) A human smuggling operation was stalled when a ship experienced mechanical problems in the Arabian Sea.

At least seven Pakistanis and an Iranian sailor starved to death and their bodies were thrown out to sea during a failed mission to smuggle illegal migrants to the Gulf, an official said Tuesday.

Four survivors managed to reach the town of Dera Ghazi Khan in Pakistan’s central Punjab province.

“The four survivors told us that eight of the 12 died because of starvation and their bodies were thrown out to sea. This is a case of human trafficking,” Hassan Iqbal, the top local administration official, said. One of the dead was an Iranian sailor, he said.

The Pakistani would-be illegal migrants were going to the Gulf from Iran, where they crossed by land from Pakistan, but their boat was stuck for 10 days at sea because of a technical fault, he said. The survivors were rescued by fishermen, he added. “Those who died were thrown overboard. It was not possible for the fishermen to carry them,” Iqbal said.

Typically, 10 days is the lower-level threshold of time required to starve to death and applies to people who have compromised physical conditioning. Trekking across the daunting terrain of Pakistan and Iran probably left the victims quite weak.