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03-05-2025
LONDON/ BERLIN: In January a migrant boat was rescued off the North African coast after 14 harrowing days lost at sea. Some 50 people died on the voyage, many of whom were lied to by people smugglers promising safe and legal routes to Europe. BBC Verify has tracked one of the traffickers responsible documenting his activities across three continents.
Punjabi rap music plays over a video showing three men at a beachside restaurant in Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott. One after the other, they smile at the camera before casually turning to talk and laugh together.
The three are clearly friends. Two of them, Sufian Ali and Atif Shahzad, are cousins from rural Pakistan but it’s the third man in particular who dominates the conversation. He’s Fadi Gujjar, a people smuggler.
The video posted to Gujjar’s TikTok account is one of more than 450 clips analyzed by BBC Verify that reveal clues about his activities and his close relationship to the other men.
Within a month of this video being posted online, Ali and Shahzad were dead beaten to death on the boat journey sold to them by Gujjar, who promised a safe route into Europe.
Meanwhile, Gujjar found himself on the run, wanted by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for his role in the tragedy.
When BBC Verify contacted him on a phone number obtained from survivors, Gujjar said repeatedly in a series of voice notes his name had been “misused” by survivors in connection with the disaster and that he was leaving it all in the hands of Allah.
Fadi, the nomad smuggler
Fadi Gujjar is from Jaurah in Pakistan’s Punjab region. In his 30s, his real name is Khawar Hassan though he also goes by Bishi Gujjar.
Pakistani smugglers the BBC has previously reported on have tended to boastfully advertise illegal routes to Europe online but Gujjar is careful. His online presence is limited to highly edited videos of his travels and almost all clients BBC Verify identified are local to Jaurah. Advertisements for his services seem to spread by word of mouth.
His current location on Facebook is set to Istanbul, Turkey, an oasis for smugglers looking to make a quick buck. Videos posted to TikTok place him in the city since July 2022, showing the smuggler outside the iconic Hagia Sophia and a Pakistani supermarket.
One other location stands out: Mauritania on West Africa’s Atlantic coast, the nerve-centre of his operation and the place from which the migrant boat started its perilous journey. Since 2023, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says Mauritania has become a hub for people smuggling, spurred on by a crackdown on other routes.
The route is deadly. IOM data shows that 170 people including 14 children – have died or gone missing on it this year.
Many Pakistanis seeking economic opportunities in Europe are willing to take the risk. Life there is glorified online by migrants already living on the continent. Smugglers like Gujjar, whose lucrative business is fueled by people’s aspirations, take advantage of this.
These migrants are taking a gamble, using their families’ savings or selling up to make the journey. The survivors we spoke to, on average, say they paid Gujjar $13,000 (£10,000). There are no direct flights from Pakistan to Mauritania, so some of the migrants transited through Ethiopia or the Middle East. From there, almost all of them went on to Senegal, before crossing into Mauritania, either by road or a short boat journey along the Senegal River. (BBC)
