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By SJA Jafri
30-10-2023
QUETTA/ KARACHI: “There is nothing to be worried about. Whether they’re 12 or 18 years old, we take guys of these ages too.”
A people smuggler in Quetta, who arranges illegal routes out of Pakistan, is explaining his business model to an undercover journalist. For 2.5m Pakistani rupees ($9000; £7,500), a young man can arrive in Europe “safe and sound” in approximately three weeks, he says, by crossing the border into Iran on foot and then travelling by road via Turkey to Italy. His tone is reassuring.
“He should keep snacks. He should definitely carry good quality shoes, and two or three sets of clothes. That’s it. He can buy water from Quetta. He will call upon reaching Quetta and a guy will come and receive him.”
The smuggler, Azam claims hundreds of migrants cross the Pakistan border into Iran every day. He downplays the risks to our reporter, who is posing as a man wanting to bring his brother to the UK.
With inflation soaring in the country and the Pakistani rupee plummeting in value, many people are looking to move. Pakistani authorities have told the BBC nearly 13,000 people left Pakistan to go to Libya or Egypt in the first six months of 2023, compared with close to 7,000 in the whole of 2022.
Often the journeys they take are dangerous. In June, hundreds of migrants died after a cramped fishing vessel sank off the coast of Greece. At least 350 Pakistanis were thought to be on board.
“Even if he gets caught (along the way), he is only going to end up back at home. No-one is going to kidnap him and ask for ransom,” Azam says but migrants who attempt to travel via Libya can fall prey to militias and criminal gangs. One Pakistani man we spoke to, who used a people smuggler to travel to Italy, says he was kidnapped and imprisoned for three months in Libya.
Saeed (not his real name) says he was only released after his family paid a ransom of $2,500 (£2,000).
Many smugglers are operating in plain sight on mainstream social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok through accounts that have tens of thousands of followers.
Since May, the BBC has been monitoring social media accounts promoting illegal migration routes. We have found that the smugglers’ tactics are concealed by a web of euphemisms that enable them to sidestep content moderation and law enforcement. They arrange trips and payments privately via direct messages and WhatsApp.
Code words like “dunki” and “game” are used to promote illegal routes to Europe. “Dunki” refers to boat crossings and “game” describes the journeys that migrants will take from start to finish.
The three most common routes from Pakistan transit through Turkey, Iran or Libya before reaching their final destination in Europe.
