Families mourn Pakistani youths who died in shipwreck off Greece

Javed Iqbal, a craftsman from Pakistan who works in Saudi Arabia, expresses regret over his decision to send his 13-year-old boy to Europe without authorization.

He claims that” the officials had sent lots of guys from the town to Greece and Italy.” ” My brother, who was obstinate and fell for their games, told us repeatedly,’ If you don’t take me to Europe, I did leave home. ‘”

Mohammad Abid, Javed’s boy, was one of five Muslim nationals who were confirmed to have died in waters close to Greece following the capsized of three boats carrying migrants last week.

Families have been urged by Pakistani authorities to prevent their children from taking these kinds of journeys. However, it has not prevented hundreds of young people from trying.

The 35 people who are still missing are now presumed dead, according to Greek ambassador officials, despite the 47 people who were saved from the most recent crisis having called off recovery efforts on Wednesday.

Two patients from the Pasrur city in central Punjab are in the family of the two victims, and BBC Urdu spoke to their grieving individuals.

Of Javed’s four children, Abid was the fourth.

” Abid’s elder brother and sister go to school, but Abid stopped going to school,” says Javed, who lives and works in Saudi Arabia.

Over the past two decades, many of their friends, as well as other kids from their community, have gone to Greece through officials, he added.

All these boys would upload videos on social media after they arrived in Greece. After seeing social media videos shared by these boys, Abid would ask, When did I have the opportunity to travel to Europe as well? “

” I explained to him many days that you are still young, you can get when you grow up, but he remained convinced,” says Javed. I told him to visit me in Saudi Arabia, but he only wanted to travel to Europe. “

In a recent press event, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Greece, Aamar Aftab Qureshi, expressed shock that a baby was among the five Muslim immigrants who died in the injuries. He added that there were even younger kids among the victims.

” This pattern of sending children fraudulently is really dangerous,” he said.

However, Javed claims that whenever Abid met these agencies and returned home, he may threaten to leave if his mother refused to give him money to send him.

She demanded that I answer his phone and discuss things to him. He did believe briefly, but after a day or two, he would go off the wires again,” Javed says.

Thus Javed sold some of his farmland and his wife sold some of her jewelry. The broker received 2. 56 million Pakistan rupees ( £7,300; $ 9,200 ) to bring Abid to Europe.

Syed claims that his son left Faisalabad airport for Egypt and then traveled to Libya, where he spent two months there and maintained normal contact with his family.

” He was glad and kept saying that there were some problems, but that they were transitory and he would shortly reach his location,” says Javed. ” We didn’t realize that his place was no Europe, but death. “

We tried to find out when there was a rumor about a ship capizing in the water near Greece, but nothing came out, he recalls.

A companion in Greece, who went to the immigrant hospital and located Abid’s body, was later contacted by the household. Additionally, they later received a visit from the Greek official in Pakistan.

Another home is grieving the passing of their child in another town in northern Punjab, Ucha Jajja. Irfan Arshad’s 19-year-old boy Muhammad Sufyan was likewise killed in the accident, as confirmed by Pakistani officials in Greece.

Irfan Arshad claimed that the agent was telling their child comfortably in a vessel and that there was no need to be concerned, but he deceived them until the very last second.

Irfan says,” Nothing fell before our eyes when there was a conversation in the community that the vessel had capsized near Greece.” It seems as though I paid three million pounds to buy my father’s suicide. “

Irfan, who owns an fuel and fertiliser buy, has four children. Two of them are living in Bahrain, while the second child is already in Greece. To give his youngest son to Greece, he sold an acre of land.

Four people were charged with human smuggling as a result of Muhammad Sufyan’s death, according to the FIA. Irfan’s claim in the report was that the agent assured them that Sufyan had quickly be transferred to Greece after Sufyan was taken to Libya. Sufyan was only given one food per day and was rather housed in a secure home in Libya for two weeks.

” My brother got cholera from eating sour meal, which made him very weak,” Irfan says. ” Whenever we talked to Sufyan, he sounded quite worried. We kept imagining why he was traveling for the first time and why he would get so glad when he arrived in Greece. “

Sufyan’s family received a call from his companions about his death after he was suddenly put on a ship to Greece.

In 2023, a ship carrying unlawful newcomers sank around the same region of Greece, resulting in the death of 262 Pakistanis. After the horror, government vowed a robust response against brokers involved in human trafficking.

Similar sentiments were echoed by officers ‘ discussions of the most recent tragedy on Wednesday. Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister, stated that Pakistan is concerned about the frequency of these situations, and promised strict action against those responsible for human trafficking.

The defendants have long operated a human smuggling ring in various nations, according to Abdul Qadir Qamar, local chairman of the Federal Investigation Agency.

According to him,” The FIA’s research has revealed that the defendants who illegally sent students overseas in Pasrur belong to the same home.” ” And these defendants have so far improperly sent hundreds of people overseas,” he continues. “

He claimed that the issue was that frequently the households of boat crash victims do not want to sue the agents.

To date, the judge has uncovered 174 human trafficking cases. Just four have been convicted.

Irfan claims that Pakistan’s foreign government had promised to deliver Sufyan’s figure to Pakistan in early January, but his family has already waited too long for that.

” We are dying moment by moment,” Irfan says. ” Until we see our father’s system, we will be neither life nor dying.

How is it possible for those whose children pass away to live harmony? “