GUJRAT: Four Pakis­tani citizens were among those killed in migrant shipwrecks off the coast of Greece, the Foreign Office confirmed on Monday.

In addition, at least 43 of the survivors belong to the Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts, local sources told Dawn.

“We announce with deep sorrow that, as per the latest information sha­red by the Greek authorities, four Pakistani nationals have been identified among the dead in Satur­day’s incidents of capsized boats in the south of Crete Island of Greece,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

It added that the Pakis­tani mission in Athens was in contact with Greek authorities to facilitate survivors and repatriate the dead bodies.

The four men were identified as Muhammad Suf­yan (of Sialkot), Haji Ahmed (of Mandi Bahau­d­din), Rehman Ali (of Guj­rat) and Mohammad Abid.

Of the four deceased men, 20-year-old Sufyan hailed from the Qila Kala­rwala area of Sialkot’s Pasrur tehsil. Local sources said he had left home in November with the help of an ‘agent’ who was stationed in Libya.

The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Gujranwala Zone has approached the parents of deceased to ascertain facts about the network involved in sending their son abroad. However, it has been learnt that the parents have declined to lodge any complaint against the agent.

The FIA’s Gujranwala Director Abdul Qadir Qamar told Dawn that he had already issued directions to the circle concerned to lodge a formal case against the human trafficking network.

Sources said that illegal human trafficking networks had all but abandoned the land route from Taftan into Iran and Turkiye following the recent incidents of killings of illegal immigrants in Balochistan during the current year.

The human traffickers have now started using air routes to send their clients to Libya, from where they are dispatched to Italy via treacherous Mediterranean crossings.

Senior FIA officials claimed that poverty and unemployment were not the only motivating factors behind human trafficking, saying that it had become a kind of social trend or status symbol in Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Wazirabad and adjoining areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir to send family members abroad by any means.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2024