EDITORIAL: It has happened yet again. At least 44 Pakistanis aboard a migrant boat have perished at sea while trying to reach Europe.
According to reports, the boat carrying 86 people, including 66 Pakistanis, had set off from Mauritania for Spain and remained stranded in the Atlantic Ocean for 13 days before capsizing off the coast of Canary Islands.
As is expected in the wake of such tragedies, the Foreign Office’s Crisis Management Unit was activated along with other government agencies to provide all possible facilitation to the survivors and information to the families of those who failed to make it.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sought a report on the incident from the officials concerned, and issued a statement vowing to take strict action against those involved human trafficking.
This story has been repeated over and over again during the last couple of years. It may be recalled that dozens of Pakistanis died in boat tragedies between February and April of 2023. That did not stop hundreds of more youths from trying their luck.
The worst disaster occurred in June of that year. As many as 262 Pakistanis drowned when their overcrowded vessel sank near the Greek coastal town of Pylos.
Shaken by the scale of tragedy, government leaders expressed sorrow over the deaths and expressed strong resolve to track down and punish people traffickers; but to little effect. Young people kept risking their lives in perilous journeys to greener pastures abroad.
Last December, 40 Pakistani lives were lost in another boat wreck near the Greek coast. Although these potential migrants to Europe come from different areas, it is not without significance that majority of them belong to central Punjab, one of the most developed and prosperous regions in the country. A large number of those who died in the latest tragedy hailed from Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts.
This suggests not only that people smugglers’ agents are most active in these areas, but that they have the backing of influential individuals — which explains lack of effective action against the culprits.
The problem, however, is generally blamed on international criminal gangs. But they cannot do any harm if we have our own house in order.
Under the law, transactional trafficking in persons is punishable with seven to 14 years of imprisonment, but it is rarely, if ever, invoked.
Following multiple tragedies only three recruiting agents were convicted; and a few low ranking officials of the Federal Investigation Agency suspended for facilitating people smugglers. But no kingpin engaged in this reprehensible business has been touched.
As long as the nexus between recruiting agents and their masters remains unbroken, nothing will change. Young people will continue to put their lives on the line in pursuit of dreams of better lives in Europe.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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