Human trafficking

Volunteers and hospital employees prepare and tag the corpses of some 46 Afghans at a hospital.—AFP

It is human nature to aspire to a better life. Some flee oppression in their homeland, others seek prosperity in Europe or Australia or North America. Africans wash up dead or alive on the coast of Spain and Rohingyas sail for Thailand, where they are clearly not welcome, to escape endless persecution in Myanmar. Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and Indians die trying to make their way into Greece, Turkey or Italy.

Mexicans risk their lives crossing into the United States. Some Afghans, a people whose continuous misery is perhaps matched only by that of the Palestinians, apparently want nothing more than jobs in Pakistan or Iran. These are not attractive destinations for most people and the desire to get there only highlights the lengths to which Afghans will go to escape from their war-ravaged country. At least 50 Afghans were found dead near Quetta on Saturday in a sealed container loaded on to a truck.

It is believed that some of them may have wanted to enter Iran and then make their way to Europe. But one survivor maintained that all they were looking for was employment and better lives in Pakistan or Iran. It is precisely this profound state of ruination that causes poor people to either flee instead of living out the remainder of their days in misery — or join the ranks of the Taliban, who will then treat them with respect.

Across the world, on every continent, there is no shortage of people who make it their business to profit from human suffering and the dreams of the underprivileged of a better future. Human traffickers can be counted among these dregs of society who lure women and children with promises of jobs and force them into lives of prostitution and enslavement.

They abandon gullible young men to their fate on alien border crossings, lock them in airless containers or dump them into the sea at the first hint of trouble. It has been known for some time now that human trafficking is big business in Pakistan, a country that is a source, destination and transit point for this heinous trade.

It is also known that much of this trafficking simply could not take place without the complicity of dubious ‘travel agents’ and corrupt border guards in Pakistan and its neighbouring countries. It is high time the authorities took a serious view of the situation and initiated a countrywide crackdown on human smuggling into and out of Pakistan.