Fatalities in migrant boat disasters - Pakistani connection

[Bewal Express]

Let's be honest PKs have been leaving since the early 60s because there was no living to be made which gave people a halal living and a decent standard of living because not all could join the civil service and bleed people dry because sahib is always out of office and as the World moves on, PKs feel even more pain, more and more will make these perilous journeys

 

[Abstraction1]

Pakistanis are treated so badly by their own Government. What hope do they have outside Pakistan.

Such a horrific story.

 

[KingKhanWC]

Let's be honest PKs have been leaving since the early 60s because there was no living to be made which gave people a halal living and a decent standard of living because not all could join the civil service and bleed people dry because sahib is always out of office and as the World moves on, PKs feel even more pain, more and more will make these perilous journeys

Working abroad for many can change the family for generations to come, such is the lack of good work in Pakistan.

Tragedies such as this wont change anything, as people will continue to risk their lives even more now, as Pakistan has descended into a poverty ridden, corrupt, dictatorship.

 

[Major]

You seem to know an awful lot of detail about lives of burger sellers in Pakistan, even down to how many hours they sleep. Is this something you have experience of? The good news is, that if every burger seller packs up his trolley to pay for a boat trip, that means more opportunity to sell burgers for the ones who stay there. So an opportunity could present itself to raise prices and profits. Which these burger guys should be doing anyway, I mean it's a pretty dumb way to run a business by pricing your goods to low to give you a return.

Unlike you, i actually live in the country go out and interact with the people.

You can look down upon these people and make fun of them all you want, and not know the problems people face in 3rd world countries.

A word of advice, if you dont understand the problems of the people, its better to stay quiet and not speak nonsense

 

[Major]

Let's be honest PKs have been leaving since the early 60s because there was no living to be made which gave people a halal living and a decent standard of living because not all could join the civil service and bleed people dry because sahib is always out of office and as the World moves on, PKs feel even more pain, more and more will make these perilous journeys

you are wrong as always.

The 60s - 70 was the year when Mangla Dam project started and thats when alot of people took opportunity of it.

Uptil the 90s, a good education with a bachalors and masters was enough for a person to land himself a good job.

As for civil service, if you lived in the country and knew anything, any person with a 14 years of education is eligible and can appear for civil service. Uptil 2000s, not alot of people appeared for the exam, its when people heard about it and than later on social media made created this false image, that now everyone is trying to go for civil service.

And not all people are corrupt in the govt.

 

[saeedhk]

Some Pakistani women were also aboard the ship. Rana, a Pakistani, lost his wife and two children.

 

[psyoptica]

Unlike you, i actually live in the country go out and interact with the people.

You can look down upon these people and make fun of them all you want, and not know the problems people face in 3rd world countries.

A word of advice, if you dont understand the problems of the people, its better to stay quiet and not speak nonsense

Major: Pakistan is a 3rd world country where people don’t have proper standards of living and are forced to leave the country for better opportunities risking their lives.
Also Major: Can’t wait for PMLN and PPP to come back in to power- the same parties that are primarily responsible for making the country poor and unliveable in the first place.

 

[Major]

Major: Pakistan is a 3rd world country where people don’t have proper standards of living and are forced to leave the country for better opportunities risking their lives.
Also Major: Can’t wait for PMLN and PPP to come back in to power- the same parties that are primarily responsible for making the country poor and unliveable in the first place.

PTI was in power, did they not make the country a better place? THeey have been in kpk for what, 10 years now? Why people from KPK leaving.

Stop making this into a political thread. All three parties are behind what has happened in the country. The MNAs of PTI are the MNAS from other parties

 

[psyoptica]

PTI was in power, did they not make the country a better place? THeey have been in kpk for what, 10 years now? Why people from KPK leaving.

Stop making this into a political thread. All three parties are behind what has happened in the country. The MNAs of PTI are the MNAS from other parties

Okay so what have your favorite PMLN and PPP done in the last 50 years having absolute power and control many times during their tenure? Screw PTI and Imran Khan. I wanna know what is it that you love about your heroes that make you such an ardent supporter?

 

[Major]

Okay so what have your favorite PMLN and PPP have done in the last 50 years having absolute power and control? Screw PTI and Imran Khan. I wanna know what is it that you love about your heroes that make you such an ardent supporter?

this is not a political thread. ANd you cant say ignore one party just becuase you are in love with it.

And these parties havent been n power for 50 years if you read the history

 

[psyoptica]

this is not a political thread. ANd you cant say ignore one party just becuase you are in love with it.

And these parties havent been n power for 50 years if you read the history

You are not making any sense. I will say all political parties are equally bad and fully responsible for making Pakistan a hellhole. Can you say the same? If you can’t find any fault in the parties you support that have been in power the most amount of tine, you are insincere, disingenuous and a hypocrite tbh.

 

[Bewal Express]

you are wrong as always.

The 60s - 70 was the year when Mangla Dam project started and thats when alot of people took opportunity of it.

Uptil the 90s, a good education with a bachalors and masters was enough for a person to land himself a good job.

As for civil service, if you lived in the country and knew anything, any person with a 14 years of education is eligible and can appear for civil service. Uptil 2000s, not alot of people appeared for the exam, its when people heard about it and than later on social media made created this false image, that now everyone is trying to go for civil service.

And not all people are corrupt in the govt.

Not corrupt? You losers have destroyed the country. For every one good guy, there are 99 of you acting as leeches. You should know, you and your ilk are the beneficiaries of this system.

 

[Major]

Not corrupt? You losers have destroyed the country. For every one good guy, there are 99 of you acting as leeches. You should know, you and your ilk are the beneficiaries of this system.

beneficiaries? You are the guy who got an army plot in DHA Islamabad.

You benefitted from a land of army personals while living in UK

 

[Bewal Express]

this is not a political thread. ANd you cant say ignore one party just becuase you are in love with it.

And these parties havent been n power for 50 years if you read the history

They have, hence the alliance when the outsider came. IK said all the way back in 2012, that Nooras and PPP were one and they would come together as soon they feared him. And all along the Generals were in on it, they saved you and blackmailed you and today PK is the edge of a precipice, with an elite that wants hold its population at gun point. Is it any wonder people are getting more and more desperate

 

[Bewal Express]

beneficiaries? You are the guy who got an army plot in DHA Islamabad.

You benefitted from a land of army personals while living in UK

Yes we did. The Generals personally gave it me and my dad

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Unlike you, i actually live in the country go out and interact with the people.

You can look down upon these people and make fun of them all you want, and not know the problems people face in 3rd world countries.

A word of advice, if you dont understand the problems of the people, its better to stay quiet and not speak nonsense

So what advice do you give to these people whom you interact with? Going from the tone of your posts in this thread, and others down the years it would probably be along the lines of:

" The country is hopeless, you can't even sell burgers from a trolley here. Sell everything you own, pay some human trafficker all your money, and pack your wife and kids on a rusty trawler to Europe, fingers crossed they make it."

Would that be about right?

 

[MenInG]

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah promised on Tuesday that the investigation into the Greece boat tragedy would be completed within a week as authorities arrested two more traffickers allegedly involved in human smuggling.

Last week, an Italy-bound fishing trawler reportedly carrying at least 800 people — including hundreds of Pakistanis — capsized off Greece. Only 104 people are known to have survived and the chance of finding more survivors was seen as virtually nil.

Reuters confirmed that the death toll of the tragedy has reached 81 after three more bodies were fished out of the sea.

As the news of the tragedy unfolded, Pakistan observed a mourning day on Monday and the Interior Ministry said special legislation would be passed to prosecute those involved in human smuggling as the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) cracked down on traffickers across the country.

The Associated Press of Pakistan today quoted the interior minister as saying that the government would take strict against human traffickers and a committee had been formed to probe the incident.

“The investigation committee will present its report in a week after which further action will be taken by the federal government,” he said, elaborating that the panel would ascertain facts pertaining to the Greece boat tragedy.

It would also identify loopholes and lapses in Pakistan’s legal mechanism, that had exposed precious human lives to the “vagaries of human trafficking in this particular case and past incidents”.

“The government will also review short-term and long-term legislation to curb the issue besides envisaging laws for imposing penalties on the people responsible for such kinds of incidents,” the minister added.

Separately, in a statement issued today, an FIA spokesperson said the agency’s Anti-Human Trafficking Circle in Gujranwala had apprehended an “agent” involved in the boat tragedy.

He said the captured suspect, identified as agent Azmat Ali, had received a sum of Rs1.7 million for facilitating the victims’ illegal journey to Europe, adding that a case had been registered against him and further investigation was underway.

The agency also said that raids were being conducted to arrest other suspects.

Earlier, the Punjab police said in a statement that a “key suspect” involved in the Greece shipwreck had been arrested.

“Mumtaz Arain was taken into custody from Vehari and has been handed over to the FIA for further questioning,” a police spokesperson said, adding that the suspect’s mobile data, documents and other important evidence were also seized during the operation.

He added that the police obtained the mobile phone of another primary suspect, Aslam, from Arain’s possession as well.

Turkiye’s Erdogan extends condolences
State broadcaster Radio Pakistan said in a report that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during a telephonic conversation with PM Shehbaz, expressed grief and sorrow over the deaths of Pakistanis in the Greece boat tragedy.

He extended his condolences to the bereaved families on behalf of the Turkish government and people. Erdogan also prayed for the departed souls.

“In his remarks, PM Shehbaz said Pakistan values the sentiments of the Turkish president and people at this hour of difficulty,” the report added.

‘50 Gujrat men missing’
Meanwhile, at least 50 people who had left for Europe with the help of traffickers have been missing and their families feared that they were on the ill-fated that sank near Greece.

At least 11 of them belonged to Kharian, 16 belonged to Goleki, Qasimabad, and Kot Qutab Din villages in the jurisdiction of the Kunjah police, five hailed from the areas of Gujrat’s Sadar and Shaheen Chowk police stations, seven people belonged to localities in the jurisdiction of Rehmania and Kakrali police stations whereas at least 10 people belonged to different villages in Sara-i-Alamgir.

Official sources said efforts were underway to identify bodies of Pakistanis through DNA testing, which had kept the families in a state of uncertainty: they are not sure whether their kins were on the boat or in some camp in Libya waiting for the voyage towards Europe.

It may be noted that there were unconfirmed reports about the presence of illegal immigrants in camps of human traffickers in Libya, which was making the identification process complicated. Similarly, these illegal immigrants often travel without having identity documents which further added to complications. The FIA said that it might take weeks in tracing and confirming the identity of the missing victims.

 

[Major]

So what advice do you give to these people whom you interact with? Going from the tone of your posts in this thread, and others down the years it would probably be along the lines of:

" The country is hopeless, you can't even sell burgers from a trolley here. Sell everything you own, pay some human trafficker all your money, and pack your wife and kids on a rusty trawler to Europe, fingers crossed they make it."

Would that be about right?

People will do desperate things for a better living. I know expats who family and children are part of the society as legal citizens and talk against immigration and all, while their own parents or parent went to the same country illegally and through political asylum.

 

[sweep_shot]

These boats seem highly unsafe. So, this type of incident is not surprising.

Traffickers should be apprehended and jailed. They are putting these people in danger.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

People will do desperate things for a better living. I know expats who family and children are part of the society as legal citizens and talk against immigration and all, while their own parents or parent went to the same country illegally and through political asylum.

I didn't ask about your musings about children of Pakistanis who moved abroad, you were talking about Pakistanis at home, and were telling me you as a home based Pakistani knew the situation better than me. So what I asked you was what advice you would give them, based on the topic, and I gave an example which you could endorse or refute. Instead you have started rambling about children of ex-pats. Do you even understand the consequences of what is happening to your countrymen?

 

[Ahmad-GERMANFC]

PTI was in power, did they not make the country a better place? THeey have been in kpk for what, 10 years now? Why people from KPK leaving.

Stop making this into a political thread. All three parties are behind what has happened in the country. The MNAs of PTI are the MNAS from other parties

It’s mostly people from Punjab leaving let’s be honest

 

[Major]

I didn't ask about your musings about children of Pakistanis who moved abroad, you were talking about Pakistanis at home, and were telling me you as a home based Pakistani knew the situation better than me. So what I asked you was what advice you would give them, based on the topic, and I gave an example which you could endorse or refute. Instead you have started rambling about children of ex-pats. Do you even understand the consequences of what is happening to your countrymen?

you are not interested and dont understand the problem. For you its just another satirical thing, that a burger stand owner is running away and dieing.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

you are not interested and dont understand the problem. For you its just another satirical thing, that a burger stand owner is running away and dieing.

No, I want Pakistanis to understand there are massive risks to taking these journeys. It's one thing for war refugees to flee persecution or war torn countries, but to risk your life as an illegal migrant is a stupid venture. If you are going to do it, at least don't put your wives and children at risk. Then if you drown or get tortured by traffickers, well that's your choice and good luck to you.

 

[MenInG]

The 'prime accused' responsible for human trafficking which led to the Greek boat incident, Mumtaz Arain, was arrested on Tuesday after instructions from Punjab Inspector General (IG) Dr Usman Anwar.

Reports suggested that more than 300 Pakistanis were among those who died after a boat packed with migrants capsized off the coast of Greece last week.

The death toll in the disaster could top many hundred as witness accounts suggested that 400 to 750 people packed the fishing boat that sank about 50 miles (80km) from the southern Greek town of Pylos.

Greek authorities have said 104 survivors and 78 bodies of the dead were brought ashore in the immediate aftermath. Hopes were fading of finding any more people alive. Most of the people on board were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan, Greek government officials have said.

 

[wasim-fan]

Very sad and painful

 

[Bewal Express]

The 'prime accused' responsible for human trafficking which led to the Greek boat incident, Mumtaz Arain, was arrested on Tuesday after instructions from Punjab Inspector General (IG) Dr Usman Anwar.

Reports suggested that more than 300 Pakistanis were among those who died after a boat packed with migrants capsized off the coast of Greece last week.

The death toll in the disaster could top many hundred as witness accounts suggested that 400 to 750 people packed the fishing boat that sank about 50 miles (80km) from the southern Greek town of Pylos.

Greek authorities have said 104 survivors and 78 bodies of the dead were brought ashore in the immediate aftermath. Hopes were fading of finding any more people alive. Most of the people on board were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan, Greek government officials have said.

And we know that he will be free when the attention dies down. We have no and order and everyone is for sale

 

[MenInG]

Muhammad Yasin borrowed almost $8,000 to reach Europe by boat to try to build a better life for his young children. Now they are being DNA tested by Pakistan to see if their father is among the scores who died when their boat sank off Greece last week.

Most of the people on board were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan and paid thousands of dollars to people traffickers like 28-year-old Yasin did. Hundreds more than the 81 confirmed victims are feared to have died. "He thought his kids' future would be better", Yasin's brother Muhammad Ayub told Reuters as the two children, Subhan, 3, and 1-year-old Zulekha sat in his lap. "We've no idea where he is. If he's alive or dead.”

In the hilltop town of Khuiratta, where the family was being tested, authorities know of at least 28 people who are either dead or missing.

The town, in AJK, like in some other parts of Pakistan, is known for people going to Europe to try to earn a better living. "Each family is giving at least two samples - father, mother or son or daughter," the area's assistant commissioner Mushtaq Ahmad said. "Some of the women don't know their sons are missing, so we haven't told them."

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told Reuters that DNA samples were also being collected in other parts of the country from families who wanted to come forward voluntarily. They will be sent to Greece to help with identification.

In Lahore, the “prime accused” was involved in trafficking people to Europe through treacherous routes and rough seas.

The arrest of Mumtaz Arain came as Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had a useful telephonic conversation with his Greek counterpart Vassilis Kaskarelis pertaining to the deaths of hundreds of Pakistani and other migrants in the Ionian Sea last week.

Foreign Minister said in a Twitter post that he discussed the tragic disaster with Foreign Minister Vassilis Kaskarelis and agreed to work closely together to facilitate the Pakistanis in distress and for the identification and repatriation of retrieved bodies.

Express Tribune

 

[Major]

Traffickers cant live in Pakistan, so im surprised how they are catching these so called traffickers in Pak. Most off them are located overseas and have families back in Pakistan.

 

[MenInG]

Traffickers cant live in Pakistan, so im surprised how they are catching these so called traffickers in Pak. Most off them are located overseas and have families back in Pakistan.

Not clear what you mean.

 

[Major]

Not clear what you mean.

people involved in transporting people out of the country through dunky system, they dont live in Pakistan.

They live overseas because the police and FIA is always after them. A know a guy whose dad was involved in this business and his dad cant return back home as he would be arrested.

Its not like the govt doesnt do anything about this.

Agents, are just agents. They will serve 2-5 years and be back in the same business. This business of moving people through dunky system will exist and thrive until they catch the real people involve.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

people involved in transporting people out of the country through dunky system, they dont live in Pakistan.

They live overseas because the police and FIA is always after them. A know a guy whose dad was involved in this business and his dad cant return back home as he would be arrested.

Its not like the govt doesnt do anything about this.

Agents, are just agents. They will serve 2-5 years and be back in the same business. This business of moving people through dunky system will exist and thrive until they catch the real people involve.

Or until the public are made aware of the dangers involved. This is down to the govt making public awareness films, the media, and locals who are educated not misleading the naive and uneducated that it's a good choice to take.

 

[MenInG]

Death hangs over the Pakistan village of Bandli like a shroud, as residents absorb news that as many as 24 young local men may be among hundreds feared drowned in last week's Greek migrant boat tragedy.

The village, home to around 15,000, was in mourning as relatives offered up DNA samples to identify bodies among the 82 recovered from last Wednesday's shipwreck in the Ionian Sea.

A procession of visitors came and went from the homes of families in distress, 95 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Islamabad in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Parents sat listlessly in the street and funeral prayers were not yet held, as the faintest hope still lingered.

Shahnaz Bibi said she spoke to her son Inaam Shafaat, 20, by phone a day before the overcrowded and rusty trawler set sail from Libya into Mediterranean waters on the world's deadliest migrant route.

"At night he told me that the weather was not clear. I told him not to go on the boat, but he wouldn't listen to me," said Bibi, in her 50s, having her DNA sampled at a local hospital.

Read more: Greece shipwreck: DNA samples collected from families of 126 missing boat victims

"He said, 'Mother I leave you in the protection of Allah. Pray for me'," she told AFP, her voice hoarse from weeping as she dabbed tears away with her shawl.

Authorities in Europe still have no clear idea how many people were aboard the boat when it sank -- estimates range from 400 to over 700 -- but likely hundreds came from Pakistan, largely from the most populous Punjab province and AJK.

An official from the country's Federal Investigation Agency told AFP more than 75 families have so far registered a missing relative believed to be on board.

Sarfraz Khan Virk, a senior official from the FIA in Lahore, told reporters that following previous such disasters, many families have refused to speak to authorities.

"They said that we want to send a second son and we will suffer if you file a case," he said.

"There are families who had sent one brother to Italy and after a failed attempt with the second brother, want to send the third one. So we have many issues and the people are not cooperating with us."

The country is in the grip of a staggering economic downturn with runaway inflation, industry and imports hobbled, and a tumbling rupee sapping families' abilities to pay their way.

AJK -- where Bandli nestles among lush rolling hills -- has historically been a springboard for migrants, increasingly driven to make desperate odysseys escaping hardship.

The eastern region hosts a thriving black market of human smugglers and Islamabad so far says 15 have been arrested for alleged links to the tragedy.

"What happened to our brother shouldn't happen to anyone else. Human trafficking has been on the rise, it will not stop," said Waheed Wazir, 38, whose younger brother Imran, 32, is missing.

"The human trafficking agents who are arrested should not be released. They should be publicly punished so nobody dares to do such a thing in the future."

The assistant commissioner of the local district Sardar Mushtaq Ahmad confirmed 24 people had been reported missing from the area.

Migrant journeys from Pakistan to Europe are perilous. Travellers often have only patchy communication with relatives and the illegal nature of the trip encourages them to lay low.

With the majority of the passengers still reportedly lost at sea, the Bandli families cling to the precious final words they heard from their relatives.

"My son had told me that they were boarding them on the boat. The weather was not good," said Tasleem Bibi, 48, already grieving her 20-year-old son Akash Gulzar.

"His voice gradually sank and he could not speak further."

 

[MenInG]

More than 30 migrants may have drowned after their boat sank in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands, two charities have said.

Walking Borders and Alarm Phone said the boat was carrying around 60 people.

Spanish authorities said rescue workers found the bodies of a minor and a man, and rescued 24 other people - but did not know how many people were onboard.

The incident places fresh scrutiny on Europe's response to migration, after a boat sank off Greece last week.

Helena Maleno Garzon, from Walking Borders, said that 39 people had drowned, including four women and a baby, while Alarm Phone said 35 people were missing. Both organisations monitor migrant boats and receive calls from people on board or their relatives.

The boat sank about 100 miles (160km) south-east of Gran Canaria on Wednesday.

"It's torture to have 60 people, including six women and a baby, waiting for more than 12 hours for a rescue in a flimsy inflatable boat that can sink," Ms Garzon said.

A Spanish rescue service ship, the Guardamar Caliope, was only about an hour's sail from the dinghy on Tuesday evening, Reuters reported, citing Spanish state news agency EFE.

The ship did not aid the dinghy because the operation had been taken over by Moroccan officials, which dispatched a patrol boat that arrived on Wednesday morning, 10 hours after it had been spotted by a Spanish rescue plane, Reuters reports.

The BBC has sent a request for comment to Morocco's interior ministry.

Angel Victor Torres, leader of the Canary Islands region, described the incident as a "tragedy" and called on the European Union to establish a migration policy that "offers coordinated and supportive responses" to the issue of migration.

Although off Africa's western coast, the Canary Islands are part of Spain, and many migrants travel from Africa to the archipelago in the hope of reaching mainland Europe.

 

[MenInG]

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah reiterated on Friday that the government will take a firm action against those involved in the illegal business of human trafficking, ARY News reported.

The interior minister made these remarks during the National Assembly session today.

There were at least 350 Pakistani victims on an overloaded boat that capsized and sank in open seas off Greece last week, said Sanaullah, adding that 82 bodies of those aboard the boat have so far been recovered.

 

[daytrader]

FIA busts six-member human smuggling gang
Report says accused ran the network with the help of two sons residing in Libya, Italy

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has unearthed a six-member human smuggling network and arrested gang leader from Gujrat, according to the investigation report into the deaths of Pakistani nationals in a migrant boat in February this year.

According to the report, Saeed alias Sunyara was running the human-smuggling network with the help of his two sons, one residing in Italy and the other in Libya and four others, from his hometown of Gujrat.

The arrest has been made by the FIA Gujrat Circle after investigation based on the information received from the family members of the victims of the boat accident off the Libyan coast, while en route to Italy four months ago.

These Pakistanis were among 67 people, who died, when a migrant boat sank in the Libyan waters near Benghazi on February 26, while they headed towards Italy. Initial reports put the Pakistani death toll to three, but more bodies were recovered later.

Incidentally, it was the same night when a wooden sailboat sank off the coast of Italy’s southern Calabria region, claiming the lives of 67 migrants, including two Pakistanis. The death toll of the Pakistanis later rose to 28.

The FIA Gujrat Circle report, presented to their superiors, said that 15 cases were lodged against different human-smugglers, adding that the four teams were constituted to contact the affected families to identify the local agents who booked those people.

“FIA busted a gang consisting of indigenous and foreign based Pakistani human smugglers & traffickers involved in the said incident. They operate in connivance with their counterparts who reside in Libya & Italy,” said the report.

It identified the gang leader as Muhammad Saeed alias Saeed Sunyara; Afaq, now residing in Italy; Hamza Sunyara, now residing in Libya; Bilal Sunyara, now residing in Libya; Kashif Sunyara, now residing in Libya and Farhan Ali, now residing in Libya.

“Main & Notorious Human Smuggler/ Trafficker Muhammad Saeed @ [alias] Saeed Sunyara S/o Safdar Hussain R/o Gujrat of the said gang, nominated in 12 FIRS [first information Reports] was arrested & now he is in judicial custody,” the report said.

...
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2423366/fia-busts-six-member-human-smuggling-gang

 

[MenInG]

So suddenly we have arrests etc - Usual stuff.

Obviously someone on the take in Pakistan and when so much international attention comes to this, we have arrests.

 

[Hitman]

Pakistan's economic meltdown spurs more people to risk lives to reach Europe

KHUIRATTA, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, June 23 (Reuters) - Hameed Iqbal Bhatti had prospered over two decades working in Saudi Arabia, but after returning to Pakistan three years ago, he was getting desperate.

The economy had suffered in the pandemic and his restaurant business closed. With work avenues drying up and sky-high inflation blowing a hole in his budget, the 47-year-old cobbled together $7,600 for a trafficker to smuggle him into Europe, where he hoped to rebuild the life he once had, his brother Muhammad Sarwar Bhatti, 53, told Reuters.

"He told me that he would start afresh for his children's future and the life he wanted for them," the elder Bhatti said at the family home in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

A boat that left Libya carrying the younger Bhatti and hundreds of others sank off Greece last week, in one of the deadliest migrant disasters of recent years. He is missing and presumed dead, according to his brother, highlighting the perils faced by people who seek to enter Europe illegally.

Pakistanis have been making these journeys in increasing numbers in recent months because of the country's economic crisis, according to more than a dozen migrants and their relatives, experts and data reviewed by Reuters.

Cash-strapped Pakistan's $350 billion economy is in a meltdown, with inflation at a record 38%. A rapidly depreciating currency and external deficit led the government to adopt drastic measures over the past year to avoid default.

But with that came a huge hit to growth and jobs. The industrial sector, Pakistan's economic engine, provisionally contracted almost 3% in the current financial year - troubling for a nation of 230 million with more than 2 million new entrants to the labour force annually.

Official unemployment data have not been published in two years. Hafeez Pasha, a former finance minister and an economist renowned for his work on Pakistan's labour force, put the jobless rate at a record "11-12%, conservatively".

Pakistan's information ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about economic factors fuelling migration.

PUSHED TO THE BRINK

The 102,000 detections of irregular migrants at the European Union's external border between January and May was 12% higher than the previous year and the most since 2016, according to Frontex, the bloc's border and coast guard agency.

Crossings of the central Mediterranean via Libya, mainly to Italy and Greece, nearly doubled, accounting for about half of the total. Currently, Pakistanis are the No. 3 nationality registered in Italy coming from Libya, after Egyptians and Bangladeshis, a Frontex spokesperson told Reuters in an email.

Of the detections this year through May, 4,971 were from Pakistan, a record for the country on the central Mediterranean route in a single year, according to Frontex data that go back to 2009.

Pakistan on Monday observed a day of mourning after the latest boat disaster. At least 209 Pakistanis were believed to be on board, according to official data based on information provided by relatives.

Even before last week's sinking, numerous Pakistanis had perished in the Mediterranean this year.

Muhammad Nadeem, 38, was aboard a boat that sank off Libya in February, killing more than 70.

Nadeem, from the eastern city of Gujrat, had three children and also supported his younger sister and mother. He worked as a salesman at a furniture store, but his wages were modest and rising inflation had made their situation precarious, according to his mother, Kosar Bibi.

"We used to make ends meet, he could feed his family. But it had become impossible", she told Reuters in their cramped three-room home where seven people live.

Bibi said her son paid someone he knew to arrange the trip to Italy, via Libya.

"He said, 'Mother, our conditions will improve'. He said he would send me to do Hajj, he would get his sister married," Bibi recalled.

Most who make the journey are unskilled or labourers and it is difficult for them to obtain work visas, Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told Reuters. But by living frugally in Europe they are able to save and send money home - a prospect made more attractive by the Pakistan rupee's 35% depreciation against the euro and dollar in the past 18 months.

"The way the situation is here right now, people think that foreign currency is going up in value, so whatever they earn it will multiply when they send it back," said Sarwar Warraich, an FIA official based in Gujrat.

LURE OF WORK ABROAD

Nadeem only had to look around his local area to see what Europe could offer.

"He saw friends and people in his neighbourhood had gone. He saw that they were successful, and hoped god would make him successful too," said Nadeem's cousin, Muhammad Zubair.

A few kilometres from Nadeem's home, Muhammad Nazim was building a multi-storey vacation home in Gujrat when Reuters visited in the spring. Nazim, 54, said he lived in the Italian city of Ferrara, running a construction business, but was visiting Pakistan.

"Our houses are built (in Italy) too, we stay there, but the reason for building them in Pakistan is that we come here with our children after a year or two to spend a few months and relax," said Nazim.

"Here in Gujrat, at least one person from every household is abroad, either Europe or Arab countries."

Nazim, who said he entered Europe illegally via Turkey in the 1990s and eventually obtained residency, said he understood why people wanted to leave Pakistan. "What can a poor man do," he said. "The conditions of the country are now like this."

Also among the dead on Nadeem's ill-fated vessel was Muhammad Ali, 21, from Bhojpur, in Gujrat district.

"Even the educated class are having lots of trouble getting jobs" in Pakistan, Ali's cousin Anish Raza told Reuters at their family home. "A person's desires make one desperate."

Across the lane, Haji Ilyas, 70, was building a palatial home. Ilyas, who owns four vehicles, including an imported SUV and two tractors, said three of his sons had gone abroad illegally, two to Spain.

"Those who are getting money from abroad, they are able to survive," Ilyas said, puffing on his hookah.

The FIA said it had clamped down on unauthorised crossings of Pakistan's borders but noted that many who seek to enter Europe illegally depart with valid visas for Turkey or Libya before venturing onward.

Limited data the agency shared with Reuters showed that 401 people were caught crossing Pakistan's borders illegally in the first four months of 2023, up about 50% from a year earlier, while 15,371 deportees were repatriated in the same period, mostly from Turkey and Greece.

'BACK TO SQUARE ONE'

With foreign exchange reserves to cover less than a month's imports, Pakistan risks running out of money. An International Monetary Fund program expires this month, and the government would need to get into a new programme within the calendar year or face likely default.

Pakistan is a top exporter of labour, and remittances have helped keep the country afloat. Nearly 830,000 people registered as overseas workers last year, the highest since 2016, official data show.

But legal migration opportunities are limited, and many migrants make arrangements through agents who often present irregular migration as a quicker, cheaper, or the only way to reach Europe, according to the Migrant Resource Centre, an EU-funded organisation that provides information and counselling to migrants.

One who took this route was Israr Mirza, 29, who said he was desperate enough to risk the journey to the West after he was laid off last year from his job at a textile factory in Lahore.

"Local jobs when available didn't pay me enough to support my wife, three kids and father, who has cancer," he said.

College-educated Mirza took a loan, bought a plane ticket to Turkey and paid a smuggler who arranged his passage by land into Greece in September. He made it, but was caught and sent back to Turkey, then detained and ultimately deported to Pakistan, where he recounted the ordeal to Reuters at Islamabad airport in March.

"I don't know if I'm happy to have returned alive," he said. "I am back to square one, with no income and now loans to pay."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Link: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-...re-people-risk-lives-reach-europe-2023-06-23/

 

[MenInG]

Six people have died after a boat carrying migrants sank in the Channel, off the French coast.

Two people may still be missing, a spokeswoman from French coastal authority Premar said, after the vessel got into difficulty in the sea near Calais in the early hours of Saturday.

About 58 people were rescued by British and French coastguards, officials said.

A number of people were seen being brought off a lifeboat, some on stretchers, in Dover.

 

[SM1989]

Whilst it is tragic, I have less sympathy for those not fleeing a war zone and moving solely for economic reasons. There are legal routes for migration to Australia, canada etc, take those and stop endangering your and your families' lives.

 

[YorkerKing]

More than 60 migrants feared dead at sea off Cape Verde coast​

• • Published
    2 hours ago

Share
Related Topics

• Europe migrant crisis

Media caption,
Watch: Survivors brought ashore after migrant boat disaster
By Joe Inwood, Suzanne Leigh, and Christy Cooney
BBC News

More than 60 people are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants was found off Cape Verde in West Africa.
Thirty-eight people, including children, were rescued, with footage showing them being helped ashore, some on stretchers, on the island of Sal.
Almost all those on board the boat, which was at sea for over a month, are thought to have been from Senegal.
Cape Verde officials have called for global action on migration to help prevent further loss of life.
The vessel was first spotted on Monday, police told the AFP news agency. Initial reports suggested that the boat had sunk but it was later clarified that it had been found drifting.
The wooden pirogue style boat was seen almost 320km (200 miles) off Sal, a part of Cape Verde, by a Spanish fishing boat, which then alerted authorities, police said.

The survivors include four children aged between 12 and 16, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.
The boat left the Senegalese fishing village of Fass Boye on 10 July with 101 people on board, Senegal's foreign ministry said on Tuesday, citing survivors.
Moda Samb, an elected official in the village, told AFP news agency nearly all those on the boat had grown up in the community and that some local families were still waiting to hear whether their relatives were among the survivors.
The ministry said it was liaising with authorities in Cape Verde to arrange the repatriation of Senegalese nationals.
The passengers' other countries of origin reportedly include Sierra Leone and, in one case, Guinea-Bissau.

 

[BouncerGuy]

"There is nothing to be worried about. Whether they're 12 or 18 years old, we take guys of these ages too."

A people smuggler in Quetta, who arranges illegal routes out of Pakistan, is explaining his business model to an undercover BBC journalist. For 2.5m Pakistani rupees ($9000; £7,500), a young man can arrive in Europe "safe and sound" in approximately three weeks, he says, by crossing the border into Iran on foot and then travelling by road via Turkey to Italy. His tone is reassuring.

"He should keep snacks. He should definitely carry good quality shoes, and two or three sets of clothes. That's it. He can buy water from Quetta. He will call upon reaching Quetta and a guy will come and receive him."

The smuggler - Azam - claims hundreds of migrants cross the Pakistan border into Iran every day. He downplays the risks to our reporter, who is posing as a man wanting to bring his brother to the UK.

With inflation soaring in the country and the Pakistani rupee plummeting in value, many people are looking to move. Pakistani authorities have told the BBC nearly 13,000 people left Pakistan to go to Libya or Egypt in the first six months of 2023, compared with close to 7,000 in the whole of 2022.

Often the journeys they take are dangerous. In June, hundreds of migrants died after a cramped fishing vessel sank off the coast of Greece. At least 350 Pakistanis were thought to be on board.

"Even if he gets caught [along the way], he is only going to end up back at home. No-one is going to kidnap him and ask for ransom," Azam says.

But migrants who attempt to travel via Libya can fall prey to militias and criminal gangs. One Pakistani man we spoke to, who used a people smuggler to travel to Italy, says he was kidnapped and imprisoned for three months in Libya.

Saeed (not his real name) says he was only released after his family paid a ransom of $2,500 (£2,000).

Going undercover to reveal people smugglers' sales tactics

They say their routes from Pakistan are “safe”, with one claiming “hundreds” are transported daily.

www.bbc.com

 

[BouncerGuy]

‘If I die, I die’: Pakistan's death-trap route to Europe

On a warm May evening, Touqeer Pervez packed two pairs of trousers, three shirts, a toothbrush and toothpaste into a small black backpack. The lanky 28-year-old with a neatly trimmed beard was getting ready to leave Bandli, his village in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, on a three-country trip that would see him travelling across land, air and sea in the hope of reaching Italy.

His family’s unfinished house, partly roofless and with walls needing plaster, was bursting with chatter and laughter. Family members and friends sat under the open sky in the veranda, as a pedestal fan desperately tried, but failed, to beat the humidity in the air.

As they cracked jokes, Haseeb, the youngest of Touqeer’s siblings, reminded his brother that in Italy, he would struggle to indulge his favourite hobby, playing cricket.

Yet amid the banter, Touqeer’s nervous mother Tazeen was still trying to convince her son against leaving. Her eldest son Tanweer had already left for the United Arab Emirates to find work in January, and Tazeen was not ready to let go of her second, and most beloved, son.

Touqeer, however, was calm and adamant.

“If I die, I will die, but if I succeed and reach Italy, at least I could help our family. Let me go please,” he pleaded with his mother.

The next morning, on May 5, Touqeer and a few other village residents left on a 150km (93-mile) bus ride to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, where they caught a flight to the southern city of Karachi. The next leg took them to Dubai, from where they jumped on a connecting flight to Cairo, and eventually made their way to Libya on May 7.

Italy, just across the Mediterranean Sea, seemed to be almost within touching distance.

'People are cruel'

More than five weeks later, Touqeer’s father Muhammed Pervez was out on his evening stroll in the village market when the 63-year-old heard people talking about a boat that had sunk off the Greek coast.

“When I saw the ticker running on TV myself, I did not pay much attention to it,” Pervez recalls, in a conversation a few days later at his home. “I did not even register that this news would change my life.”

The next day, a villager told him that a Bandli resident was on the boat, and had survived - bearing bad news. “He confirmed the drowning of Touqeer, my son,” Pervez says.

The Adriana, a fishing trawler, was carrying more than 700 people when it sank on June 14 off the coast of the Greek Island of Pylos. On board were people from Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, Palestine and many other countries - but one nation dominated the passenger manifest. The boat carried more than 300 Pakistanis, including Touqeer.

It departed from the Libyan port of Tobruk on June 9, and headed for the Italian coast, carrying the hopes and dreams of individuals, families and entire villages seeking a better future. Only 104 of its passengers survived, 12 of them from Pakistan.

Sitting outside on an old plastic chair in the same veranda that was bubbling with laughter the evening before Touqeer left, Pervez speaks quietly of the years of struggle that had led to that moment of heartbreak for the family.

Wearing a plain white shalwar kameez with a prayer cap, Pervez’s face is wrinkled, his hands rough and his eyes sunken, as he remembers Touqeer.

The father of four sons, Pervez suffers from chronic hepatitis C, which can cause persistent fatigue. Unable to work any more, he quit his job as a brick kiln worker five years ago.

Unemployed since then, Pervez has been unable to finish constructing his house, which has uncovered steel rods protruding from its sides. Surrounded by a maize field, that incomplete house, accessible only by foot, is where he lives with his wife, two younger sons and two daughters-in-law — including Touqeer’s pregnant wife.

Touqeer had completed college, but every attempt to find work - as a policeman, as a shop assistant, as a labourer - in his village failed. Once his elder brother Tanweer moved to the UAE to work as a labourer, Touqeer decided that he could no longer avoid sharing the family’s financial burden.

With a child on its way, an ailing father and two younger brothers, Touqeer pressed his parents to let him take a shot at getting to Europe.

“His mother kept resisting for the longest time, trying to dissuade him from going, but he was adamant,” Mirza Ramzan Jarral, Touqeer’s uncle, tells Al Jazeera. “Touqeer would break down often, just by seeing how his mother often had to work in the field despite old age, and due to his guilt of not being able to provide for family.”

Yet, if convincing his parents was tough, getting the village to back him - that too with hard cash - was easier. To make the trip, he needed to pay an agent 2.2 million rupees ($7,500).

“People are cruel. I have been asking for just 400,000 rupees ($1,300) from our neighbours for the last few years to loan me money so we could finish our roof, but nobody helped us. But when Touqeer asked for money that could allow him to go to Italy, people pitched in immediately,” a sobbing Tazeen says. “Now I don’t have a son any more, but I have a crippling debt added on.”

By May, he had collected the money he needed.

“People in our village, and our families, we have seen so many young men attempting to migrate to Europe and successfully repaying the loan,” says Mirza, who himself loaned his nephew 200,000 rupees ($700).

The calculus for those who loan money is simple. Giving cash to somebody to build a house carries a high risk that amid the poverty of Bandli, the recipient won’t be able to repay it.

By contrast, lending money to a young man attempting to reach Europe is a far more promising prospect. Once a villager reaches Europe, he is indebted to those who helped him get there - and often is expected to help the family members of loan-givers also make the journey out of Pakistan.

It was that dream that Touqeer and 11 other men from the village on board the Adriana were chasing - a dream that all of Bandli had invested in.

Only one survived to tell the village of the death of the others.

‘If I die, I die’: The allure of Pakistan’s death-trap route to Europe

About 300 Pakistanis died off the Greek coast in June. Others in their villages still want to make the same journey.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[Cricket Warrior]

FIA arrest alleged human smuggler for involvement in Greece boat tragedy

The Federal Investigation Agency has arrested the alleged ringleader of a human traffickers syndicate that sent two Pakistanis on a migrant boat that capsised off the coast of Greece resulting in the killing of at least 82 while some 500 were presumed dead including 209 Pakistanis.

A spokesperson for the FIA said that the Anti-Human Trafficking Circle Rawalpindi and the Counter Terrorism Department on Sunday carried out a joint raid in Umerkot City of Sindh to arrest the suspect identified as Faizaullah.

The overloaded boat capsised off the Greek coast while carrying as many as 750 people on June 14 in one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea. Only 104 men survived the tragedy while 82 bodies were recovered.

According to the FIA spokesperson, the suspect took millions from a citizen to send his son and nephew to Italy through the migrant boat.

He alleged that Faizuallah’s accomplices took the two Pakistanis to the ship. However, they went missing when the migrant ship capsised in the Mediterranean Sea.

There were at least 209 Pakistani victims on an overloaded boat, data shared with Reuters by a Pakistani investigative agency on June 22 showed.

The data shared by the FIA said 181 were from Pakistan and 28 from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, adding that DNA samples from 201 families had been gathered by officials to help Greece identify those missing.

FIA arrest alleged human smuggler for involvement in Greece boat tragedy

A spokesperson claims suspect received hefty sum from family of two victims

www.aajenglish.tv

 

[hassan918]

At least 49 dead, 140 missing in migrant boat sinking off Yemen: UN​

At least 49 people have been killed and 140 more are missing after a boat carrying refugees and migrants from the Horn of Africa to Yemen sank, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The vessel that capsized on Monday was carrying some 260 people, mostly from Ethiopia and Somalia, who had set off from the northern coast of Somalia to travel 320km (200 miles) across the Gulf of Aden to reach Yemen.

Refugees and migrants from the Horn of Africa and East Africa are increasingly braving the dangerous journey to reach Saudi Arabia and other Arab states of the region via Yemen.

The IOM said in a statement on Tuesday that 71 people had been rescued, eight of whom were taken to hospital. At least six children and 31 women were among the dead.

In April, at least 62 people died in two shipwrecks off the coast of Djibouti as they tried to reach Yemen. The IOM said at least 1,860 people have died or disappeared along the route, including 480 who drowned.

More refugees and migrants are taking the route despite the devastating effects of a nearly decade-long war in Yemen, which erupted after the Houthi group rebelled and took control of large areas of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

The flow of migration has been undeterred in the aftermath of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, as well.

The Iran-aligned Houthis have for months carried out attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Gulf of Aden, demanding that Israel end the war on Gaza, with the United States and the United Kingdom responding with air raids on Yemen in a stated effort to protect international interests.

The number of migrants arriving in Yemen annually tripled from 2021 to 2023, soaring from about 27,000 to more than 90,000, the IOM said last month. The agency reports that about 380,000 migrants are currently in Yemen.

The sinking of the boat on Monday “is another reminder of the urgent need to work together to address urgent migration challenges and ensure the safety and security of migrants along migration routes,” said IOM spokesperson Mohammedali Abunajela.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

 

[hassan918]

11 people dead and dozens missing after two shipwrecks off coast of Italy​

At least 11 people have died and more than 60 are missing - including 26 children - after two ships were wrecked off the coast of southern Italy.

A rescue ship run by a German aid group picked up 51 people thought to be migrants from a sinking wooden vessel in the first of two shipwrecks.

RESQSHIP said two of the 51 were unconscious and had to be "cut free with an axe".

Ten bodies were found trapped on the wooden ship's flooded lower deck near the Italian island of Lampedusa, the organisation added. No one is believed to be missing.

"Our thoughts are with their families. We are angry and sad," RESQSHIP wrote on X.

Those on board came from Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Organisation for Migration and UNICEF said in a joint statement.

The survivors were handed over to the Italian coastguard and taken ashore, RESQSHIP said.

Its own ship, the Nadir, towed the wooden boat containing the bodies of the deceased to Lampedusa.

Entire families presumed dead in second wreck

The second shipwreck took place about 125 miles east of the Italian region of Calabria, after a yacht that had set off from Turkey eight days earlier caught fire and overturned, UN agencies said.

Twelve migrants, including a pregnant woman and two children, were picked up, the Italian coastguard said.

A woman among them, who is thought to have fallen into the water, died immediately after landing.

The others are in a serious condition, Vittorio Zito, mayor of the town of Roccella, said.

Survivors reported that 66 people were missing, including 26 children, "some of them very young", Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) - the Doctors Without Borders charity - told Sky News in Roccella.

Shakilla Mohammadi, an MSF staffer, added: "Entire families from Afghanistan are presumed dead."

The yacht may have been taking on water for three or four days, while those on board were not wearing life jackets, MSF also said.

Some passing vessels did not stop to help, survivors said.

Migrants involved in the shipwreck off Calabria came from Iran, Iraq and Syria, agencies added.

Source: SKY