Reports about illegal migration from Pakistan to European destinations continue to emerge, and authorities here remain unable to check and punish human trafficking networks.
Illegal migration highlights two related issues: firstly, the growing number of Pakistanis who are risking their lives to make a living abroad;and secondly, the state of the economy that leaves many young men with meagre opportunities to pursue dignified livelihoods at home.
The latest incident involved a van chase in Slovenia. The van with Austrian licence plate was carrying 20 Pakistanis. While trying to cross the Croatian border, it was intercepted and chased till it met an accident near the northeastern town of Ljutomer.
The places of origin of the 20 men inside Pakistan so far remain unclear.
The majority of Pakistani migrants to Europe in recent incidents have been from Punjab. In an incident in December last year, four illegal Pakistani immigrants lost their lives when their car plunged into a ravine in Greece. Two of the deceased were found to be from Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab, while the whereabouts of the other two remain unclear.
A recent study by the International Migration Organisation (IMO) found that Pakistani migrants use some of the most dangerous routes in the region. In its 2017 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, the US State Department had ranked Pakistan in tier II of its watch list — formed based on measures taken by different governments to curb human trafficking.
These studies and poor rankings have yet to serve as an impetus for the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to start tracking down networks of human smugglers operating inside the country.
On the contrary, the agency doesn’t even seem willing to acknowledge the gravity of this situation. Following last November’s incident in Turbat, the FIA had surprisingly denied any possibility of the involvement of human smuggling. The killings of 14 men were explained as acts of ‘international terrorism’. That those men were on their way to Europe, hoping to cross over to Iran when they were killed, simply didn’t bother the agency enough to initiate an investigation into the role of traffickers involved. *
Published in Daily Times, January 19th 2018.
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