LAHORE: Muhammad Nawaz of Mandi Bahuaddin sold his land to pay Rs500,000 to a human smuggler to arrange his travel to Europe via Libya.

The human smuggler got his visa issued for Dubai from where he left for the strife-torn country (Libya) in August.

“After spending a week or so there the human smugglers asked him to get ready to reach his final destination, Italy. He boarded a boat along with a good number of Pakistanis and the people of other nationalities on Aug 27. Before the boat could reach Italy, a scuffle broke out between the Pakistanis and the human smugglers for keeping them in the part of the boat where fish are stored. In the fight Nawaz and 14 other Pakistanis lost their lives,” Imtiaz Husain, a relative of Nawaz told Dawn. He had come at the Allama Iqbal Airport to receive Nawaz’s body here on Wednesday.

The bodies of seven other Pakistanis - Muhammad Umair, Hasan Raza, Ali Akbar, Abdul Maroof and Muhammad Aslam (Gujrat), Faisal Nadeem (Kharian), Muhammad Imran (Jhang) - were also brought here on a PIA’s cargo plane from Italy. All of them were reportedly aged between 25 and 35.

Two more bodies are expected to reach here next week while the five others who died in the fight or drowned have reportedly been buried there.

“Nawaz, who was in his 20s, was eager to try his luck in Europe as he believed that he could make his fortune there. Here he thought being a farmer he could not break the vicious circle of poverty. He sold a piece of land which he owned for Rs500,000 and paid to a human smuggler to pursue his dream,” Imtiaz said.

However, it was shocking for the family when it heard the news of death. “Perhaps this was his destiny,” he concluded.

Azhar, a relative of young Ali Akbar of Gujrat, said his father had advised him to go to Saudi Arabia if he was so eager to go abroad to earn his livelihood.

“But Europe charmed him more. He paid Rs600,000 to an agent for his travel to Europe via Libya. We have no clear information whether Akbar was killed along with other Pakistanis on deck or they drowned,” Azhar said who was confused about to whom he should blame for Akbar’s death.

Federal Investigation Agency Lahore region Director Dr Usman Anwar told Dawn that it was difficult for the agency to stop the young guys leaving for Dubai on visit visa. “The modus operandi of the human smugglers is simple. They arrange the visit visa for their clients for Dubai where they manage to get visa for Libya which is easily available. After reaching there they board them on a ship and hardly a few make to their destination,” he said.

Dr Usman further said the FIA could only interview such aspirants but had no legal grounds to stop them. He said the FIA had got the information about two human smugglers who arranged the travel of some of the victims and teams were constituted to arrest them.

Meanwhile, the FIA Lahore arrested six alleged human smugglers - Haji Nazar, Ali Raza, Ashraf, Tariq Tufail, Matiur Rehman and Saddam Husain.

The Anti-Human Trafficking Cell raided United Technical Training Centre, Iqbal Town, and Jam Mushtaq Recruiting Agency and recovered 31 passports from the suspects. The accused were allegedly involved in sending people illegally to UAE, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

Published in Dawn October 1st, 2015

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