- Every rose has its thorns
The bullet-riddled bodies found in Kech and Tajban areas of Balochistan have unmasked the ugly aspects of what the business of ‘illegal’ immigration has become in Pakistan. Paying the ‘agents’ a heavy sum after having arranged it by fair means or foul, trespassing into the boundaries of other countries, and entering the country of their choice without official documentation are the major steps that have been over-simplified for convenience of comprehending what all prospective candidates and, in other words, potential victims are told. Each of these and the preceding stages, however, has its own share of causes and effects addressing which is the only light at the end of the dark and lengthy tunnel this practice has become.
Nearly all of the problems, including the one under discussion, being faced by a third-world country like Pakistan are a direct or indirect product of the poverty-overpopulation vicious cycle that we have been unable to spall. Inadequate means of sustenance encourage birthing of more and more children as instruments of earning by both hands but who, instead, become dependents owing to the increase in the number of mouths to be fed. This, in turn, progressively worsens the financial conditions, making life a living hell for all. There is no denying the fact that higher the population, more the competitiveness over the already shrinking pool of resources and opportunities, exacerbating the snowball effect by several degrees. With early marriages comes the burden of early responsibilities which is, sequentially, entwined with such bright ideas as resorting to kinky short-cuts to success.
Whatever the means acquired, the freshly won bundles of bank notes are handed over as such to the agents without any receipt or guarantee but with a surety that the agency would not responsible for any loss of property or life whatsoever
The money required in the name of fee that has to be paid to immigration agents, ranging from few thousands to several millions depending upon the final destination, may be procured using one or several of the following methods: borrowing; selling or mortgaging owned assets like jewellery, vehicles and/or property; and shoving the younger siblings or children into forced or bonded labour. Whatever the means acquired, the freshly won bundles of bank notes are handed over as such to the agents without any receipt or guarantee but with a surety that the agency would not responsible for any loss of property or life whatsoever.
In a country where the government brushes off the responsibility of legal migrants, travellers and tourists, how could a sane mind mistake to believe that authorities will ever take up the burden of illegal emigrants wishing to cross into Iran en route to Europe or those intending to change their identities and moving to once-beloved Amreeka (a word that describes all the dreams and wishful thoughts associated with the wonderland the United States apparently is in an illusionary lingua franca that buds from the point of convergence of common interests of Pakistanis)?
The horror that has lately been unleashed in the form of corpses of individuals hailing from different cities of Punjab should have been realised way earlier because the statistics were never in the favour of the practice. A report issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in 2015 revealed the startling figures of 50,000 deportees being sent back to Pakistan annually, 10,000 undocumented migrants who are later apprehended and deported, 11,000 applications for asylums by Pakistani nationals in Europe alone, and, despite anything and everything, over 70,000 individuals being interested in leaving Pakistan by any means. Our very own Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was successful in intercepting over 5,500 intending migrants and soon-to-be dupes the very same year, compelling an average mind to ponder over the reasons behind such forlornness and desperation.
Having deliberated about the number of members in a family and its position on the poverty scale now is the time to weigh up the external factors that lead to such extreme decisions. How can we expect our government to bring this minacious business under the ambit of law when it has miserably failed to provide respectable and reasonable jobs to this country’s youth on this land? Yes, the most recent incident was “heartrending” and Punjab’s chief minister undoubtedly equally shares “the grief of the bereaved families” owing to which he generously announced a financial aid of up to Rs1 million per cadaver, but how about assessing the approximately-ten-year-old tenure of the same and using it as a barometer to gauge the opportunities and vacancies that have been created for the unemployed, skilled/educated lot? Could awarding of a cheque after the demise of a person ever replace the significance of the breadwinner that he was for his entire family?
One bitter truth associated with the business is that every rose has its thorns; one cannot simply pluck the flowers of one’s choice without enduring some pain. While there are ‘good’ agents in the field, there are many scapegraces as well who work as smugglers and human traffickers. The FIA claims to have intercepted around 1,300 human smugglers back in 2015, placing Pakistan on Tier-2 (countries from where human smuggling and trafficking originates) Watch List for four consecutive years as per the Trafficking in Person report published by the US State Department on annual basis. The seriousness of our institutions can be assessed from the fact that the first ever law concerning this was passed in 2002 by the name of Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance. Nothing existed before that, hence narrating the deplorable tale of our intention of solving problems wholeheartedly.
The major driving force to which an average man acquiesces is a bunch of success stories that kindle aspirations in one’s hearts to achieve whatever their uncles and elders have achieved overseas. Such stories, however, fail to paint the entire and real picture which includes all the persecutions that one has to face during the procedure as well as after landing, treatment as second-class citizens and appalling working conditions in the Middle East to quote one. Nonetheless, the most transfixing and convincing facet of the whole deal lies in the fact that there are many more reasons to leave than to stay. The only solution, therefore, of curtailing such practices and the consequent brain drain is to generate interest of potential and actual working class on this very stretch of land, let it be in terms of educational openings, existence of jobs, or decent salaries, regardless of what it takes.
