Off the Greek coast: Why did so many boat victims come from Pakistan?

In a rural area called Khuiratta, not far from Pakistan’s heavily militarised border with India, people are reckoning with a tragedy and searching for answers.

Khuiratta, named after a spring over which Muslims and Hindus fought during the time of the British Raj and currently part of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, is home to several villages perched on rolling green mountains peppered with waterfalls and springs, white-domed mosques and red, blue and purple flowers that dot the landscape every spring.

Marble-tiled houses with large courtyards and imported cars are a common sight here. The fortunate owners of these homes and vehicles have purchased these luxuries from the money they made working in England, Italy and other European and Gulf countries.

Real-estate prices in this agrarian region are comparable to those of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, located some 150km away, indicating how property values have risen as a result of the investments made by expats.

However, Khuiratta is in mourning. Dozens of its residents were onboard an overcrowded fishing trawler that sank off the coast of Greece, causing hundreds of migrants and refugees to drown on June 14.

The boat capsized near the Greek coastal town of Pylos while on its way to Italy from Libya. It was believed to be carrying more than 700 passengers from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt. Only 104 survived.

Pakistani authorities have so far confirmed the deaths of 81 citizens. But they fear there were more than 300 Pakistani nationals on the ill-fated vessel. Among the victims who have been identified, 28 were from Khuiratta.

A history of migration

Located in the district of Kotli, Khuiratta is part of Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s southern Mirpur division, which has come to be known as 'Little England'.

Since the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of people from the Mirpur division have migrated to the UK. The first generation consisted mostly of those who were displaced from their villages after the construction of Mangla dam.

While official statistics are unavailable, estimates suggest that there are close to 1 million expatriates living in the UK who maintain properties and close ties with family members in Pakistan.

“When the expats visit home, they zoom around in big jeeps, go on wild shopping sprees and spend lavishly. When their neighbours watch this sort of lifestyle, they also crave for foreign shores,” says Imran Maqsood, a lawyer from Khuiratta.

“It’s a rat race. If 10 men from one village have gone and settled in Europe, then the 11th one wants to follow them."

However, lack of education and absence of sufficient skills means that aspiring migrants have little chance of landing a job in Europe via legal channels — and with human traffickers charging up to Rs2.7 million (around $9,450) to smuggle one person to Italy, it costs the average migrant eight years’ worth of minimum annual wage in Pakistan to make the perilous journey.

“A notional perception of prosperity and better quality of life in Europe has pushed young people to take a plunge into the misadventure of this illegal odyssey,” says Naila Altaf Kayani, a political analyst based in Muzaffarabad, Pakistani Kashmir’s capital.

“Unfortunately, while our ruling elite undertake foreign trips religiously, they have never taken serious steps to develop a human resource that is genuinely required and welcomed in Europe.”

A story of many reasons

On almost every street corner in Kotli, there’s a story to be heard of a son or cousin or friend who has either perished or successfully crossed the Mediterranean Sea, which has become a mass graveyard for thousands of migrants and refugees.

At a state-run hospital in Khuiratta, relatives are trickling in for DNA profiling as part of a process to identify the victims of the latest tragedy. Among them was Muhammad Sadiq, 75, whose 30-year-old son Sajid is among the missing and presumed dead.

Sajid flew to Libya almost a year ago, but before he could take the hazardous boat journey to Italy, he was arrested for attempting to travel illegally and was subsequently jailed for several months. Then, in early June, he sent a WhatsApp message to his father saying he would finally board a boat heading to Italian shores.

“Then there was no news from him and we saw his name on the list of those who have drowned,” says his father.

Sajid, who had paid an agent more than Rs2 million (almost $7,000) to cross into Europe, was not driven to take drastic measures due to poverty — at least not by Pakistani standards. He owned a small mobile phone shop and drove a Toyota sedan. Yet he aspired for more.

Conflicts, persecution and economic upheaval in countries like Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Myanmar, Ukraine and Venezuela have displaced tens of millions of people from their homes, forcing many of them to undertake dangerous journeys across borders, according to the UN and other human rights organisations.

While many in Pakistan grapple with extreme poverty, even Pakistanis with a viable income like Sajid are facing a cost of living crisis, with inflation running at a record high and a government struggling to fix foreign exchange rates to repay its debt.

On the Pakistani side of Kashmir, which has a population of 4.5 million, the biggest source of employment is the public sector. But government jobs often only go to those with strong political connections, leaving others struggling to find a decent income.

And while Khuiratta might have pockets of land where real estate value is on par with Islamabad and where a few villagers have plenty of cash to spend, stories of financial loss and desperation are not uncommon.

Hameed Iqbal, 46, is another victim of the June 14 boat tragedy in Greece. Iqbal was a resident of Seri Chattar village and a father of five.

Iqbal used to have a job in Saudi Arabia that helped him earn enough to support his family. But in 2020, during the pandemic, he visited his ailing mother. Soon after, a travel ban was imposed and he lost his job.

He opened a small restaurant, but after losses piled up, he shut it down. An ‘agent’ — as traffickers are locally referred to — offered Iqbal a way out: an illegal boat crossing into Italy at a cost of Rs2.3 million ($8,100).

Before it became difficult to cross over into Europe due to increasingly stringent border control, illegal migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan would take the treacherous land route via Iran and Türkiye.

With crossings becoming more challenging in recent years, traffickers had to change tactics: They now fly migrants to Libya and then shove them onto rickety boats destined for Italy.

“Going to Europe on a ‘Danki’ (a small boat) seemed easy. The agents assured papa that he will be in Libya in a month’s time,” says Iqbal’s 21-year-old son, Saeed Hameed.

Iqbal said his goodbyes and left for Libya on April 28 to never return.

Stuck in Libya

Pakistan police have arrested more than a dozen suspects accused of running the trafficking network responsible for this latest incident. This includes one of the network’s ringleaders, Sajid Mahmood Warraich, who was apprehended at the Karachi airport on June 17, says Dr Khalid Mahmood Chauhan, a senior police officer from Mirpur.

“We need to work on our laws. They are not good enough to stop the traffickers,” he tells TRT World.

Over the years, human smugglers have built a sophisticated network stretching from rural villages in Pakistan to handlers active along the Libyan coast. They have devised informal ways to receive payments and to share cuts of the profits along the route. There are even people on their payroll who actively sell the idea of a ‘good Italian life’ to young men.

“They look for men who can be easily moulded. Once the victim is convinced, they tell him there’s no longer space on the group and he’d have to find more people who join him if he wants to make it to Italy,” says Adeeb Zafar, a local councillor.

This Ponzi scheme-like way of cultivating a group of ‘migrants’ has destroyed many families.

“I know a boy who sold his land to meet their demand, and is now languishing in a Libyan jail,” says Zafar.

Local officials fear a bigger humanitarian disaster is impending in the prisons of Libya, where migrants are at the mercy of human traffickers who withhold their passports and other travel documents, making it nearly impossible for them to get out without paying a ransom.

Just a week before the migrant boat tragedy, Muhammad Habib, a 27-year-old man from Taniyot village in Khuiratta, died under mysterious circumstances in a Libyan prison in the port city of Tobruk.

He was among hundreds of Pakistanis from Khuiratta who have been languishing in Libyan prisons for making attempts to cross the Mediterranean and enter Italy.

Once in Libya, the migrants are often asked to cough up thousands of dollars in extra payments if they want to get out of the prisons and continue their onward journeys to Italy.

“I have spoken to some 20 people stuck in Libyan prisons. I have also gotten in touch with the families of many more. They are locked up in pathetic places where they don't get proper food, water or medical treatment,” says Rafique Nayyar, a local politician and member of Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly.

Back home in the villages of Khuiratta, families are far from finding closure.

“He was an intelligent and hardworking boy. I told him not to risk his life. This desire to go to Italy has ruined so many of our people,” Sajid’s father Sadiq tells TRT World, fighting back tears.