Parents did not want their children to leave Pakistan for a better future abroad. Not that they were against progress or were averse to their children becoming financially and professionally independent. Their concern emanated from the process they had chosen to go abroad. Many of them did not even have a passport, leave alone visas. The voyage that would have taken them to Europe was spread over three months. And on June 14, the journey took a new road to death.
The modus Operandi often used in human smuggling is hoodwinking the system to accomplish the illegal project. Which calls for short-duration stays in different countries before reaching the destination. For the entire length, these 600-plus Pakistanis lived a squalid life. They remained hungry, and when death finally approached them on that ill-fated and over-loaded vessel, they were even denied the right to drink water. According to eyewitnesses, around seven people had already died before the vessel capsized. BBC reports that 100 children were onboard. They all seemed to have perished along with their mothers. So far, almost a week after the incident, only 75 bodies could be recovered. When shall the Mediterranean Sea throw them ashore is a matter of guessing or probably a lifetime wait.
The Mediterranean Sea has become a sinkhole of unfulfilled dreams. According to the International Organization for Migration, “441 people had drowned in early 2023 while attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe, the most deaths over three months recorded in the past six years.” News of the drowning of aspiring travellers keeps pouring in, posting a new figure of accumulated deaths.
The question is, what made so many Pakistanis opt for an illegal route to Europe? Why is the script of every family—asking their children not to leave—similar? What has gone wrong in Pakistan with the youth? Who could take such a high risk for a future that wasn’t after all that promising? Usually, blue colour jobs demand excessive labour. Also, in Europe, like in the US, white-collar jobs are reserved for natives. One has to be exceptionally talented to enter that race.
The other disturbing news from the incident is that Pakistanis were cramped in a hold at the lower part of the vessel. On board were Egyptians and people from Libya and Afghanistan. They were crammed at the upper part. Death, the leveller, however, took everyone in despite the segregation.
The Greece Coast Guard had come under the hammer for showing negligence when the vessel’s passengers demonstrated the first sign of despair. They are accused of not raising the flag to the higher authorities for swift action. They are charged with using amateurish skills to remove the ship from harm’s way. Greece had been under the radar for violating the human rights of the migrants.
It began with the Syrian war that swept through the Middle East, making way for one of the largest migrations. Germany, Greece and many other countries had shut their borders to prevent the mass migration from The Middle East, and North African countries called MENA. The picture of a toddler lying facedown dead in the surf not far from Turkey’s fashionable resort town of Bodrum forced these countries to let in the migrants. The child was a Syrian. He also lost his elder brother.
The reason the migrants were fleeing their countries, riddled with conflict and civil wars, was partly due to the US and its Western allies’ supporting the anti-Bashar Asad forces in Syria.
Pakistan’s government is being grilled for consistent negligence towards human trafficking and smuggling. How is it possible to take almost 600 people from Pakistan to Dubai, Libya, via air travel without the assistance of the aviation department? The human smuggling mafia cannot function without deep linkages in the political, law enforcement, maritime and aviation departments, besides tentacles rooted in the banking and financial system.
Law enforcement in Pakistan has made many raids, materialising in a few arrests. Unless they are prosecuted and indicted, there shall remain doubts about the credibility of the official claim.
Forming committees and teams to crack the so-called mafia circle smacks another attempt to push the matter under the carpet. People doing illegal work neither possess any definite address and when fear is lurking by a close margin, they increasingly switch posts.
Returning to the critical question: What led these young people to risk their lives and families.
The geographical location of the passengers’ native countries speaks for their plight. They were from Egypt, Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine and, of course, Pakistan. They all share a similar fate—countries drowned in poverty, lacking opportunities, busting to its seems with young populations, stricken with terrorism, hamstrung by the IMF programme, and last but not least, governed by expedient and opportunist leaders.
Reports from the native towns of Pakistanis considered dead are stories of insufficient resources, joblessness and inflationary pressures. A deadly combination—indeed.
Those who had drowned did not probably dare to commit suicide; however, they did have the tenacity to allow death to grab them unattended.
No one barters a safe and secure life for a dicey future. Unless one has to choose an uncertain present over an equally uncertain future that might turn out bright if luck is on one’s side.
