RAWALPINDI: The bodies of 11 Pakistanis arrived on Wednesday at Benazir Bhutto International Airport from Libya in a special plane.
Their names were Ikram-ul-Haq, Muhammad Qasim, Waleed Akram, Mirza Ghulam Fareed, Tanzeel-ur-Rehman, Muhammad Aziz, Luqman Ali, Kashif Jamil, Azmat Bibi, Mazhar Hussain and Farhan Ali.
They were among 16 Pakistanis who died on Feb. 2 when a boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya.
Weeping relatives of the deceased arrived at the airport with ambulances to take the bodies to their hometowns. They demanded that the government take action against people-smugglers.
Bashir Chaudhry, the cousin of a deceased family, said Ismail Khan drowned along with his wife Azmat Bibi and their two children. Only Bibi’s body was recovered.
“The family was planning to settle in Spain. That’s why they risked their lives,” he told Arab News.
“They were poor, and Ismail couldn’t find a job in Pakistan despite his best efforts for the last two years.”
Khan paid a hefty amount to people-smugglers, Chaudhry said, adding: “People who wish to go to Europe for better jobs should learn a lesson from this incident.”
The bodies were brought from Jeddah via Saudi Arabian Airlines. The deceased are from the Mandi Bahauddin, Gurjat, Sargodha, Faislabad, Sialkot and Rawalpindi districts of Pakistan.
The bodies of two more Pakistanis will be flown later after completion of due process by Libyan authorities.
Ghulam Akbar told Arab News that his brother Mirza Fareed is survived by five children who are now bound to lead a “miserable life.”
Akbar said: “The government should take strict action against people-smugglers.” He urged parents not to send their children abroad via illegal means.
Sajjad Haider Khan, director of the Libyan Crisis Cell of Pakistan’s Foreign Office, said bringing the bodies back was difficult due to a lack of direct flights from Libya.
“Gullible people are an easy target for people-smugglers,” he told Arab News. “People-smugglers have spread their tentacles across the globe, and they’re well organized.”
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested dozens of people-smugglers in recent months, he said.
There is a need to create public awareness about the risks and dangers involved in going to Europe via illegal routes, he added.
“Europe isn’t a paradise,” he said. “People should try to find jobs in Pakistan instead of paying hefty amounts to smugglers and risking their lives.”
Thousands of Pakistanis risk their lives each year to travel to Europe in search of better jobs with the help of people-smugglers. Most end up in jail or dead.
In November last year, 20 people trying to cross the Pakistan-Iran border illegally, with help from smugglers in both countries, were killed by militants in Turbat, Balochistan.
According to an FIA report issued in December last year, 6,767 Pakistanis entered Europe illegally via Iran in 2017 alone, while 27,749 were deported — 18,810 from Iran, 4,401 from Turkey and 4,538 from EU countries.
“Pakistani nationals are among the 10 most-detected nationalities that attempt irregular migration to the European Union and Australia,” the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report published in July 2013.
Bodies of 11 Pakistanis arrive from Libya
Bodies of 11 Pakistanis arrive from Libya
US quits global organization dedicated to preventing violent extremism
- With other international agencies scaling back following mass US foreign aid cuts last year, GCERF said it now carries much of the global prevention burden alone, and that its $50 million annual budget had not risen to fill the growing gaps
GENEVA: A global organization dedicated to preventing violent extremism said on Friday the US had made a mistake in withdrawing its support while the risk of militant attacks surges in the Middle East and Africa’s Sahel.
The Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, which supports prevention programs across dozens of countries with communities vulnerable to extremism — appeared on Wednesday in a White House memo announcing a US pullout from 35 international agencies and 31 UN entities it said rejected US interests.
Dr. Khalid Koser, head of the Geneva-based GCERF, said the decision came as a surprise and without explanation and that it reflected a deeper ideological shift under US President Donald Trump’s administration away from multilateral prevention programs toward security-focused counterterrorism measures.
“I think it’s a mistake to take out that fundamental piece of prevention. But I don’t think this administration believes in prevention,” Koser told Reuters.
The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Koser said risks of extremist violence were higher than at any point since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, citing as examples Afghanistan, the Sahel and camps in northeast Syria that hold tens of thousands of Daesh family members — and a new generation at risk of radicalization after the Gaza war.
“If you don’t work on prevention, then in 10 years time, you’re going to have lots of terrorists and lots of problems.”
Further underlining a US repudiation of multilateral cooperation bodies under Trump’s “America First” policy, the White House also announced it was quitting the 30-nation Global Counterterrorism Forum.
The US helped establish GCERF’s program in northeast Syria that helps reintegrate families from former Daesh militant circles. Koser said that while GCERF’s work would go on, it was losing a major player in the US, and that Washington’s decision was perplexing given GCERF’s agenda remained relevant to US national interests.
With other international agencies scaling back following mass US foreign aid cuts last year, GCERF said it now carries much of the global prevention burden alone, and that its $50 million annual budget had not risen to fill the growing gaps.
The 2025 Global Terrorism Index issued by the Institute for Economics and Peace showed the number of countries recording a terrorist attack increased from 58 to 66 in 2024, reversing nearly a decade of improvements.
