"If the situation in Pakistan or business was good, nobody would want to leave." "Everyone in Pakistan is looking to go outside," said Ibrahim Khan, a close friend of Makhdoom Sadiq, a missing Pakistani passenger from the village of Goleki in Punjab. Families of migrants who undertook the journey from Libya say the rising cost of living and lack of options for employment fueled the desire to get out of Pakistan. The number of Pakistanis who were aboard the migrant ship is a telling indicator of conditions in the country, which has undergone months of political and economic upheaval. They expected to earn enough money to cover their living expenses and send funds home to support their wives and children as well as an extended family of around 40 people. Once they made it to Europe, they planned to find jobs as laborers. They'd drive to Lahore, Punjab's largest city - flying from there to Dubai and then on to Libya, where they'd get on a boat headed to Italy.Īs they prepared to depart, the men were excited about the prospect of leaving their area in rural Punjab - a cluster of mud-walled houses on the edge of agricultural land where their family members work as contract farmers. They would depart in early May from Noor Jamal – the village where they had moved after selling their house in Gujranwala. PUNJAB, Pakistan - When Muhammad Aslam sold his house in Gujranwala, Pakistan, to finance smuggler fees for his two grown sons, he imagined it would pay off when they landed safely on the shores of Europe.Īslam's sons, Qasim, 36, and Munir, 24, along with two other male relatives, informed their family the trip for the group of four would cost around 10 million rupees, nearly $35,000. Muhammad Aslam, whose sons Qasim and Munir are still missing from the shipwreck, sits by his house in Noor Jamal village, Punjab province, Pakistan on June 22.
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