WRETCHED social conditions add an extra layer of cruelty to ordinary lives. The UN’s migration agency says that “at least 8,938 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2024”, making it the fifth year that numbers hit record highs and the deadliest one for migrants — almost 9,000 lives lost globally in preventable tragedies. The statistics are, in all likelihood, much higher as scores of deaths and disappearances remain undocumented. The fatalities were highest for Asia, Africa and Europe in 2024: “2,778, 2,242, and 233 respectively”, with 2,452 people perishing in the waters of the Mediterranean, a prime passage to Europe for the desperate. In Pakistan, a national crackdown was announced following the Greek boat tragedy last year, but a few arrests and dismissals was all it took for the government’s fury to fade. These actions were cosmetic at best because the central challenge lies in fighting a deep-rooted culture of corruption and impunity, which permits trafficking networks to operate freely; they keep official palms greased to evade justice.

Subsisting on a bare minimum of resources in times when the average person’s standard of living has fallen significantly, migrants, often poor and marginalised, are easily deceived about the perils these journeys entail. In the quest for a better life, they face abuse and are packed like sardines into unhygienic quarters as they pass through countries that flout international humanitarian laws by shirking all responsibility; even their law-enforcement does not protect them. To alter the gaze on migrants, the narrative has to change: they are victims and not offenders. While recent cases of human traders manipulating air routes to hold migrants for ransom highlight the growth in their range of methods,joblessness, the absence of education and poverty create a sense that happiness and stability can be found in another land. The battle is to ensure that these emotions are solely for home.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2025