Last Friday (February 6), one of the world’s most popular and deadly routes for illicit migration claimed a fresh batch of victims. In the latest tragedy, a boat carrying migrants and refugees from several African countries overturned off the coast of Libya, leading to the deaths of at least 53 migrants. The UN warns that this is just the latest shipwreck to have occurred amid severe winter weather, with many more tragedies feared to be unrecorded. However, even those on record reveal a grim state of affairs. At least 375 people have been reported dead or missing in January alone in the central Mediterranean, according to the International Organisation for Migration’s missing migrants database and there were 1314 reported deaths or missing persons last year alone. And this covers just one specific migration route, with at least 8938 people dying on migration routes worldwide in 2024. Pakistan has, unfortunately, not been spared entanglement in this global catastrophe. In 2023, as many as 300 Pakistanis are thought to have lost their lives when an old and overcapacity fishing trawler capsized off the coast of Greece.
This desperation and inequality create fertile grounds for the human smuggling gangs that often operate the ill-fated migrant boats traversing illegal and dangerous routes to the developed world. Even when these migrants do reach their destination, they often find that the promise of a better life was just a facade meant to lure them in. Take, for example, the reports from last year detailing how hundreds of Pakistanis apparently fell victim to an employment scam in Cambodia, where they were lured with promises of lucrative jobs but are instead being held hostage, forced to do illegal work and subjected to violence. This also highlights that authorities must address not only the routes between the developed and developing worlds, but also the routes within the developing world. And with the problems of the Global South only compounding, these gangs are likely to be in business for years to come. However, they are just one side of the problem. The demand for their cruel and inhumane services is generated by a global migration system basically rigged against the poor and the desperate and a global economic system almost calibrated to sustain poverty and desperation in the Global South.
The xenophobic turn across the West has made it very difficult for people in countries like Pakistan to secure legal migration now. Even countries in the Gulf, once assumed to be destinations that even less educated Pakistanis could bank on, now seem to be increasingly out of reach for many. While it is important for the authorities to prevent illicit migration and crackdown on things like improper and incomplete documentation, the legal migration system needs to adapt to the economic realities of the world. Most Pakistanis seeking to go abroad do not want to participate in illegal activities and are net-contributors to the countries they go to. The same can be said for the vast majority of migrants. In this context, the paperwork and procedures associated with legal migration should be simplified and made more affordable. The alternative is the status quo, one that sends thousands of innocent people to a watery grave every year.
