The hierarchies of hell

Tragedies start small. Then, like Russian dolls, that small tragedy is encased in a larger one, and then a larger one still…until it’s finally big enough to – ever so briefly - catch our eyes.

And so it was with the latest sinking of a migrant boat off the coast of Greece. Of the estimated 800 souls on board, only a little over 100 survived. The grim calculus grows worse when it comes to the Pakistani passengers, said to be about 400 in all. Of these, only about a dozen made it out alive.

And that’s just because there are degrees of dispossession. That’s because there are hierarchies even in hell. And on that crowded boat of death, Pakistanis were relegated to the lowest rung of the inferno; they were kept below decks and locked in the stinking hot hold of the ship.

There was a practical reason for that, it seems. Drinking water, already in short supply, had run out a few days before and the Pakistanis, unable to deal with the twin torments of thirst and heat, kept trying to reach the top deck to try and bargain and beg for a sip of brackish water, for a precious gulp of cooler air. But that was a privilege you had to pay a few euros for, and most of the Pakistanis did not have the means to upgrade their places. This didn’t stop their pleas and so, tired of their repeated interruptions, the traffickers decided to lock them in the hold – designed to store fish - where they had no chance of survival when disaster struck.

They weren’t alone; women and children had also been locked in the hold, belowdecks, ostensibly to ‘protect’ them from the men. And in a world where up is down and black is white, it is somehow fitting that the sacred rule of evacuating women and children first also found itself inverted and debased.

Meanwhile we talk, because talk is as cheap as our lives.

One shouldn’t expect anything to change; the business of human trafficking is a lucrative one that involves collusion at all levels in the Pakistani administration, and especially in those agencies tasked with curbing it.

Zarrar Khuhro

Condemnations fill the airwaves and speeches are made on the floor of the Parliament. The government announced a day of mourning and authorities promised action, even going so far as to form a committee and arrest a few ‘agents’, the local term for human traffickers. 

The script is as old and tired as the anachronistic, bureaucratic language government dispatches are written in, and the promises of action carry no weight. Just a day after the sinking, a reporter based in Gujranwala managed to contact and interview a prominent agent who has the distinction of being listed in the FIA’s Red Book, a list of Pakistan’s most wanted, and whom the police and FIA, with all their resources, claim to be unable to trace. He’s going to stay underground for a few weeks, he says, and then it’ll be business as usual.

And why wouldn’t it be? After all, it’s a question of supply and demand… and the demand is unlimited. Despite knowing the risks, thousands of young Pakistanis – mostly from the Gujranwala range and a few districts of AJK, opt to take art in the ‘game’ of illegal migration to Europe, often paying hundreds of thousands of rupees for the chance, like so many others from those areas already have.

There’s a certain fatalism involved, say reporters who have covered human trafficking for years: when asked about the dangers, the reply from would-be migrants is that death could come even while crossing the street. Why then not take this risk? There’s a cold pragmatism involved as well, as in the case of a father whose elder son perished in a crossing years back. Instead of trying to bring the agent to justice, he cut a deal: the traffickers would be forgiven if they were to ensure that the man’s surviving son made it to Europe.

So, one shouldn’t expect anything to change; the business of human trafficking is a lucrative one that involves collusion at all levels in the Pakistani administration, and especially in those agencies tasked with curbing it. It’s the same system that allows illegal organ harvesting, that turns a blind eye to sex trafficking and smuggling. All it requires really, is the ability to invert every value one is supposed to hold dear. All it involves is the mental ability to view people as products, as cargo, as entries in a balance sheet, as disposable assets that can be written off with the stroke of a pen. 

All you need to do is embrace the hierarchy of hell.

– Zarrar Khuhro is a Pakistani journalist who has worked extensively in both the print and electronic media industry. He is currently hosting a talk show on Dawn News.

Twitter: @ZarrarKhuhro