Pakistan observed a national day of mourning on Monday for the victims of last week’s shipwreck off the coast of Greece, in which hundreds of Pakistani nationals are feared to have died. FRANCE 24’s Shahzaib Wahlah and Sonia Ghezali spoke to grief-stricken families whose loved ones were on board the ship.
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Local media say more than 200 Pakistani nationals were among an estimated 750 people on board the fishing trawler heading for Europe when the vessel sank on Wednesday, June 14, off the Peloponnese peninsula.
At least 20 of those missing were from the city of Gujranwala, in Punjab province. Among them was Amir Malik’s cousin Mohsin, who left a voice note as he boarded the boat in Libya’s Tobruk on June 9.
“Once he arrived in Libya, the smugglers took his phone. We had no choice but to go through the smuggler to be in contact with him,” Malik said. “That’s how we learned that he was not going to go to Europe by plane but illegally, by boat. Mohsin told us: ‘I am trapped, I have no choice but to follow them.’”
With Pakistan’s economy in freefall, the desperate situation is creating an incentive for Pakistanis to take perilous, illegal routes to Europe in hope of a better future. Since the deadly shipwreck, local officials say they have arrested 10 people on suspicion of involvement in human trafficking.
A few steps away from Malik’s home, Moniza Baig said she has no news of her son Ajmeer, the father of a one-year-old girl.
“My son asked me this question before leaving: ‘Tell me mom, how can I survive here? Baby diapers are very expensive, milk is expensive, I have no money to feed my children,’” she said. “In each family, the young men are hopeless; they beg their parents to sell their homes and pay for them to go work abroad.”
Click on the player above to watch the report by Shahzaib Wahlah and Sonia Ghezali, with the collaboration of Talha Saeed.
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