Boat capsize incident off Italy: Most of missing Pakistanis were ‘in Umrah pilgrims’ guise’
GUJRAT: Most of the Pakistani immigrants, who went missing in the fresh boat capsize incident off Italy, had left the country in the guise of Umrah pilgrims, while some others were on visit visas of Azerbaijan, Egypt and Uganda.
Well-placed sources told Dawn on Wednesday that the missing immigrants had left Pakistan around four to five months ago. Through different routes, they reached Libya, where they kept waiting for their turn to board the boat to reach Italy, the sources say.
They say that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had been assigned the task to collect the data of the Pakistanis, who went missing, and trace the agents involved in sending them abroad from different areas of Gujranwala and Gujrat regions.
However, an official source says, the families of the missing Pakistanis are reluctant to share any information about the agents involved in sending them to Libya to smuggle them onward to Italy.
The official says that as per the initial information, at least six main agents, two each from Mandi Bahauddin and Sialkot and one each from Gujranwala and Gujrat, were involved in sending these illegal immigrants to Libya through various routes.
He says the Mandi Bahauddin agents are also said to be involved in sending abroad some of the missing persons belonging to Hafizabad district, whereas an agent from Sambrial tehsil of Sialkot is also suspected of sending the missing Pakistanis from Sialkot and Wazirabad districts to Libya.
As per local sources, at least seven of the missing Pakistanis are from Phalia and Malakwal tehsils of Mandi Bahauddin, four each from Hafizabad and Sialkot, three from Gujranwala and one each from Gujrat and Wazirabad districts.
It is learnt that a youth, Ameer Hamza, of Sook Kalan village of Gujrat district, is also among the missing Pakistanis.
Official sources say the missing Pakistanis had flown abroad from Islamabad, Lahore, Faisalabad and Sialkot airports.
They say that the FIA’s field staff is busy collecting more information about the missing persons and agents, which could help the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) target the human trafficking networks in the region.
The FIA Gujranwala Zone could not lodge any case against the suspected human traffickers so far because of non-cooperation of the heirs of the missing Pakistanis, officials claim.
However, following the previous boat capsize incidents, several cases were lodged on the complaints of the FIA officials after the victims’ families declined to become complainants against human traffickers.
Meanwhile, sources close to the families of the missing illegal migrants say they (heirs) had no update about the fate of their loved ones.
The boat carrying more than 100 illegal migrants had capsized off the coast of Italy on Sunday the last, and at least 20 Pakistani nationals, hailing from Gujranwala and Gujrat regions, were among those who were lost at sea.
According to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration, more than 80 illegal migrants had gone missing when the boat carrying 120 people capsized in the Central Mediterranean after departing from Tajoura, Libya. It says that 32 of these people were rescued and two bodies retrieved so far.
Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2026
