ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) on Monday to "ascertain facts" about a migrant ship that crashed into reefs near an Italian coast on Sunday, killing at least 60 people including several Pakistanis.

Italian authorities said rescuers recovered nearly 60 bodies, and dozens more were missing in the rough waters. Officials feared the death toll could top 100 since some survivors indicated the boat had as many as 200 passengers when it set out from Turkey, United Nations refugee and migration agencies said.

At least 80 people were found alive, including some who reached the shore after the shipwreck just off Calabria's coastline along the Ionian Sea, the Italian Coast Guard said. One man was taken into custody for questioning after fellow survivors indicated he was a trafficker, state TV said.

Sajid Hussain Turi, Pakistan's minister for overseas Pakistanis, said around 40 Pakistanis were killed in the incident.

In a Twitter post, PM Sharif referred to reports of over two dozen Pakistanis drowning in the boat tragedy "deeply concerning and worrisome."

"I have directed Foreign Office to ascertain facts as early as possible & take the nation into confidence," he wrote.

More than 170 migrants were estimated to have been aboard the ship, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration said in a joint statement.

Among them were "children and entire families,'' according to the U.N. statement, with most of the passengers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia.

"Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis, in collaboration with Ministry of Interior, Foreign Office will formulate [a] comprehensive strategy to initiate [a] crackdown on criminal network of human trafficking," Turi wrote on Twitter.

"Those abetting abroad should be arrested by Interpol & their CNIC & passports should be confiscated & bank accounts blocked."

In 2022, some 105,000 migrants arrived on Italian shores, some 38,000 more than in 2021, according to the Italian Interior Ministry figures.

According to U.N. figures, arrivals from the Turkish route accounted for 15% of the total number, with nearly half of those fleeing from Afghanistan.

Since April 2022, Turi said, over 600,000 people had been sent abroad for jobs and his ministry was working hard to find overseas employment opportunities for Pakistani workforce.

He requested the masses not to fall prey to human trafficking.