Asad Ali, a Pakistani who attempted six years ago to migrate illegally to Turkey, says that at the time, he would have given his life to leave his home country.
Ali said he tried to travel to Turkey over land in 2017 when he was just 21 — a trip full of treacherous paths on the West Balkan route to Europe — but he surrendered in Iran and was deported back to Sialkot, Pakistan, where his family lives.
While he wasn’t able to see his journey through to the end, he’s alive to talk about it — a fate very different from most of the roughly 350 Pakistanis who were on a packed fishing boat that capsized off southern Greece on June 14, a number provided by Pakistan’s interior minister.
Of the estimated 700 migrants on the boat travelling between Libya and Italy, only 104 men — including 12 Pakistanis — were rescued, while 82 bodies have been recovered, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said on June 23. The others who were rescued were Egyptians, Syrians and Palestinians.
“I feel the pain shoot straight to my heart,” Ali said in Urdu, in an interview with CBC News. “I understand how everyone was feeling … not just as a Pakistani, but as humans. They just wanted better for their future families and must have paid so much, only to face such a grim fate in the sea.”
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency said it gathered the names of 281 people on the boat and some DNA by contacting the victims’ families in Kashmir.
Rev. Mussie Zerai, a priest and co-founder of Agenzia Habeshia — a global humanitarian organization that works with asylum seekers and refugees — has helped many migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
“I understand how painful it is now for many Pakistani families,” he said. “We pray for the souls of these people.”
Mediterranean ‘a big, open sea of graves’
The sinking of the boat off the coast of Greece — which is being called one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean — was the third major tragedy recorded this year in which migrants from Pakistan lost their lives at sea.
A boat that capsized in February, near the southern Italian region of Calabria, claimed at least 60 lives, including more than two dozen Pakistanis.
In April, the bodies of 57 people, some of whom were Pakistani, washed ashore in Libya after two boats carrying refugees capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.
“It’s no longer the Mediterranean Sea,” Zerai said. “It’s a big, open sea of graves of Pakistanis, Egyptians and other migrants.”
In recent months, Pakistanis have been making these journeys in high numbers, spurred by the country’s economic meltdown, with inflation hitting a record 38 per cent in May.
“The country is not livable,” Ali said. “And what can you expect people to do when this route is all they know, and everyone else is shutting doors on them?”
In a second attempt to leave home in 2019, Ali took the same land route but had documents to get to Iran, cutting the illegal portion of his trip to Turkey in half.
He paid an agent about $1,500 Cdn to get from Pakistan to Turkey, double the usual amount, just to ensure no one took his cellphone. Smugglers routinely take migrants’ phones and personal belongings, Ali said, but he needed his phone to record his journey and create a documentary to warn others about attempting an illegal crossing.
After reaching Turkey and settling in, Ali said he made the 15-day trip back to Pakistan just to create his documentary and return to his family.
Pakistani villages mourn the loss of dozens of young men who perished in the migrant boat sinking off of Greece as the Pakistani government promises to crack down on human trafficking.
“I don’t want anyone to go through what I did or what the people on the … boat [off the coast of Greece] did. No one deserves the pain and trauma.”
Ali said he subsequently obtained legal documents to migrate to Turkey, and although he travels back and forth between Turkey and Pakistan, he lives and works in Turkey as a translator for newcomers.
“If I had known the struggles that came with the path, I would have never done the trek,” he said.
Fears of being sent home
Marta Bivand Erdal researches South Asian migrant patterns at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), in Norway’s capital.
Between slim opportunities for career growth in migrant hometowns and troublesome weather patterns, such as increased flooding in Pakistan, those who try to migrate to another country illegally think of the hardship as a manageable risk, she said.
“Things are much harder now than they were pre-pandemic, in terms of just managing day to day,” she said in an interview with CBC News.
Bivand Erdal said people attempting to migrate might not be aware of the hardship that comes with taking the illegal route.
“The chance that you’d actually die is not what people have been hearing about,” she said. “Being sent home is what they hear about the most.”
Pakistan’s most popular migratory routes to Europe include the Central Mediterranean route, with 3,859 migrants from January to April 2023, and the Western Balkan route, carrying 649 migrants in the same period, according to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, also called Frontex.
The Central Mediterranean route now carries 20 times the number of Pakistani migrants than it did in 2021, Frontex said.
Who is to blame?
So far, Pakistani authorities say they have arrested seven alleged key figures in a human trafficking ring. Thirty other suspects were arrested over the past few days in Pakistan and were being questioned for their role in facilitating smuggling activities.
On June 21 in London, U.K.’s National Crime Agency arrested an Egyptian man suspected of being one of the ringleaders.
Ali says he believes that without the smugglers, no one would take illegal migrant routes.
“I fully blame the smugglers. They put vulnerable people in a terrible situation,” he said.
Rescue efforts continue as crews search for hundreds of others in the deadliest such incident this year. There is no clear record but officials suspect there may have been as many as six hundred people onboard…. Far beyond the capacity of the boat. They expect there will be more deaths as this tragedy unfolds.
But Zerai, of Agenzia Habeshia, said simply arresting smugglers might not be a long-term solution. Developed countries such as Greece should have the sea-rescue resources to assist these boats when they’re in danger, he said.
Greece defended its response to the sinking vessel, saying those on board rejected assistance and that moving the migrants on to other ships or towing the overcrowded boat would have been too dangerous.
“Countries like Canada are built off the backs of migrants, so why are these European countries watching them drown? Why do they prefer to ignore [the migrants]?”
Bivand Erdal of PRIO said the immediate solution to prevent migrant deaths is more resources for sea rescues.
The Mediterranean is divided up into search-and-rescue zones, with each state responsible for co-ordinating operations in its zone.
There’s also Frontex, the European Union’s border and coast guard agency, but that’s more focused on detecting smuggling and terror-related activity along Europe’s borders.
‘Time will tell’ if disaster brings change
International maritime rules are clear that vessels at sea have a duty to rescue those in trouble.
The 1974 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea says any ship that becomes aware of persons in distress “should proceed with all speed to their assistance.”
“If people are at risk at sea, you save them first and then you see what’s next.”
Bivand Erdal said the deaths off the coast of Greece are a sign of the limited legal migration opportunities in Pakistan.
“There’s a problem … it’s not easy to go legally. Most people who ask for a visa get turned down,” she said. “So they might end up taking this route out of necessity.”
A 2018 report from the United Nations Refugee Agency called for improved access to safe and legal pathways for migrants, such as resettlement, family reunification, education and labour schemes.
The report also called for increased rescue capacity, specified and predictable disembarkation points, more solidarity and support for those countries where most refugees and migrants arrive.
Bivand Erdal said while government promises have been made, very little change has occurred in the past few years. On the local level, she said, bringing awareness and information to those thinking about taking an illegal route out of the country is imperative.
She said she hopes that this latest tragedy can be the event needed to spark change to help migrants through similar situations in the future.
“I wonder whether this is a before-and-after, perhaps, but I suspect that we might see a change there, at least the Mediterranean routes. I’m not sure, but time will tell.”
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