Family of migrant shipwreck victims 'shocked' by 'double standards' search for Titanic sub

A family member of victims on the boat carrying migrants which sank off Greece earlier this month has called out the rescue operations for the Titanic submersible Titan.

Abdul Karim, a 36-year-old shopkeeper based in Kashmir who lost a cousin and uncle on the ship, said he was “shocked” at the contrast in the responses to the two tragedies and called out perceived "double standards".

It comes after Pakistan’s interior minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said that an estimated 350 Pakistanis were on board the overcrowded fishing boat which sank off Greece. Many remain missing and may have died in one of the deadliest incidents in the central Mediterranean Sea.

Khan told lawmakers in the National Assembly that an estimated 700 migrants were on the boat when it sank June 14. Only 104 people, including 12 Pakistanis, were rescued and 82 bodies have been recovered.

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The Titan submersible imploded during its dive to view the wreckage of the Titanic on the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean last week resulting in a four-day search for the sub under the assumption that the five men aboard were still alive.

REUTERS/CNN

Speaking to the Guardian, Karim called out the fact that such efforts and attention had been put into the search for Titan – and suggested that at the same time authorities “did not bother” to search for victims on the submerged Greek boat.

“We were shocked to know that millions would be spent on this rescue mission,” he said.

“They used all resources, and so much news came out from this search. But they did not bother to search for hundreds of Pakistanis and other people who were on the Greek boat.

“This is a double standard… they could have saved many of the people if they wanted, or at least they could have recovered the bodies.”

He went on to say: “It’s sad that a submarine carrying five rich people was given much more consideration, coverage and importance than the migrants on the Greek boat.

“Millions of dollars must have been spent to rescue the rich but for the poor, there’s no such opportunity.”

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