EDITORIAL: After much confusion as regards the number of people on board the ill-fated boat , the facts that seem to have emerged upon confirmation by the Pakistan’s Foreign Office reflect that of the 180 or so people on board 17 Pakistanis have been rescued, two lost their lives while 2 individuals are still missing.
Former Pakistan women’s hockey player Shahida Raza was among the dead. It has been reported by media that Shahida did not want to leave her son (a three-year-old boy who is paralyzed by birth) behind and go overseas to look for work.
But she had to do so as her financial crisis and son’s ailment forced her to take a decision that involved a greater than usual amount of risk.
The vessel had set sail from the Turkish port of Izmir a few days earlier and was carrying migrants across the Central Mediterranean route smashed into rocky reefs and broke apart while trying to land near Crotone, a port city in southern Italy.
Besides Pakistanis, there were Syrians, Afghans, Iranians and some Africans on board, including traffickers, who have been arrested by the Italian authorities. In another unrelated but unfortunate incident, 7 Pakistani nationals have so far perished in a boat wreck near Benghazi, Libya.
These recent deaths on the Mediterranean are not the first instance. According to Amnesty International, for example, “the Mediterranean has been a holiday destination for decades. In recent years, however, it has acquired new fame as the world’s ‘deadliest sea crossing’.
Moreover, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says that ‘more than 1,600 people lost their lives in the Mediterranean during the first 11 months of 2021.
The number of deaths recorded for whole of 2020 was 1,448’. In other words, more than 25,000 people have died in the Mediterranean Sea since 2014.
That the endless tragedy on this sea has many causes is a fact. But the decision of European governments to prioritize border control over sea rescue is the chief reason behind the deepening plight of illegal migrants.
It is said, and rightly so, that ‘the European Union has abdicated its responsibility ensure search and rescue in the Mediterranean’. According to Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch, “No EU ships actively patrol anywhere near where most boats enter into distress...Deterrence by drowning and dehydration is abominable.
In the absence of meaningful safe legal channes, and the persistence of conflicts, rights violations, and hardships that push people to flee, EU states and institutions should act now to protect life at sea and ensure predictable disembarkation in places of safety.”
Be that as it may, the country’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is said to have arrested prime suspects involved in illegally sending Pakistanis to Europe. The FIA’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Smuggling Wing deals with organised crimes like human trafficking.
But the challenge of smuggling of migrants cannot be dealt with effectively or in any meaningful manner because the laws in this regard embrace a mild legal pluralism amid unconfirmed reports that every government encourages human smuggling as part of its overall approach to external sector requirements as inward flows of workers’ remittances have always been one of the most reliable sources of foreign exchange.
In other words, the punishments stipulated through these laws are not strong enough to efficiently deter human traffickers from carrying out their migrant smuggling business. Hence the need for strengthening the relevant statutes and enhancing the capacity and expertise of our agencies to deal with this deadly business in an effective and meaningful manner.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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