“Ehtisham was the darling of the family. He was very fond of cricket. His only obsession was that one day he would go to Europe and poverty would end at home.”
This is a statement from Fazlur Rehman, a close relative of 35-year-old Ehtisham Anjum, who went missing after a migrant boat he was in capsized in Greek territorial waters on Saturday. According to locals, 10 of the passengers, including Anjum, were from Helaan, a village in Pakistan’s central Punjab province.
The initial list of 47 survivors released by the Pakistani embassy in Greece does not include Anjum’s name. But the family is holding out hope that he is still alive. However, according to Pakistan embassy in Greece, the rescue operation for the missing has been called off by the Greek authorities.
According to the embassy in Athens, three boats carrying 175 illegal migrants of different nationalities including Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Egyptians and Sudanese crew members, capsized off the Greek coast.
While all the passengers on two of the boats were rescued, only 39 out of 83 have been rescued from the third. Several teens were on board and at least one 12-year-old Pakistani was among the passengers.
In a video shared with VOA, several Pakistanis give the details of their perilous journey and the poor condition of the boats ferrying them to Greece from Tobruk, Libya.
One survivor of the boat that capsized said the sea was rough, and the boat was small and not in good working condition. Despite that, he said, the smugglers put many people on board, way over the boat’s capacity.
That man and another said the boat hit a coast guard ship or cargo ship before it capsized. They said they were in the water for an hour and a half before being rescued.
Last year more than 350 Pakistanis lost their lives when an overcrowded boat carrying hundreds of illegal migrants sank en route to Greece from Tobruk, Libya.
According to Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights, Pakistan, “in the year 2023 alone over 6,000 Pakistanis undertook illegal journeys to reach European shores” -- though some estimates put the number significantly higher. A report released by the commission in May of this year said most of the illegal migrants were motivated by economic concerns.
Human smugglers are a big part of this journey and one of the locals in Helaan village told VOA’s Urdu service that a local agent had asked for the equivalent of $14,380 each from the clients to get them to Europe. The agent went missing after the news of the accident.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency intensified its crackdown on human smugglers in the wake of the tragedy off Greece last year. In 2023, 189 cases were registered, leading to 854 arrests.
Fazlur Rehman, the relative of Ehtisham Anjum, says four youngsters from the same village died four years ago while trying to get to Europe illegally. He adds that people are becoming greedier and will soon forget the dangers involved.
This story originated in VOA’s Urdu Service, with Ehtisham Shami and Ishraq Nazir contributing.
