ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested a suspected human smuggler for his involvement in a boat capsize off Libya that killed seven Pakistanis among dozens of migrants last week, the agency said on Friday.
The vessel, carrying around 115 passengers, overturned late Sunday along the central Mediterranean route, one of the world’s deadliest migration corridors. Survivor accounts suggested only about 30 people were rescued.
While the total number of Pakistani casualties was not officially confirmed, relatives earlier said six young men from Pakistan’s northwestern Bajaur district were among over 70 feared dead by international maritime officials.
The FIA said it had conducted a raid in Gojra city in Pakistan’s Punjab province and arrested the suspect, Muhammad Tahir, who took Rs2.1 million ($7,526) from a man named Muhammad Iqbal Arshad for sending him to Italy.
“The suspect tried to send the citizen (Arshad) from Libya to Italy illegally by boat,” the FIA said. “The citizen died in the boat accident.”
The deceased belonged to Punjab’s Mandi Bahauddin district, according to the agency. Officials also seized Rs9.9 million ($35,731) from the suspect.
The arrest comes amid an ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration and human smuggling after multiple boat disasters in recent years prompted Islamabad to hunt down traffickers who lure citizens with promises of jobs and a better life abroad.
In 2023, a fishing trawler carrying hundreds of migrants capsized near Greece, killing at least 82 people, with dozens of Pakistanis among the victims. A year earlier, another boat carrying migrants sank near Libya, also resulting in Pakistani casualties. These tragedies have drawn international attention and raised questions about the role of organized human smuggling networks operating across borders.
Pakistan also plan to soon launch an “artificial intelligence-driven application” to track and apprehend human traffickers by digitizing its ‘Red Book’ of most-wanted criminals, a senior FIA official said last week, as Islamabad pushes to dismantle networks responsible for the string of recent maritime tragedies.
