National flags were at half-mast on all official buildings
on Monday in Pakistan, which was home to some of those who drowned last week.
“As the incident took place at very deep waters it is not
clear how operations will continue beyond the current stage.”
Rescuers were likely to wind down their search for
survivors soon, according to Thanasis Vasilopoulos, the mayor of Kalamata.
“It’s hard to see search and rescue operations going on for much longer,” he
said. “Unfortunately, we have not found any survivors today. The waters in the
area where the incident happened are very deep. It is hard to imagine finding
survivors by now.”
The people rescued – all of whom are men – include 43
Egyptian nationals, 47 Syrian nationals, 12 Pakistani nationals, and two
Palestinians, the Hellenic Coast Guard said. Eight of those rescued were
minors.
There were an estimated 750 passengers on the ship,
including at least 40 children, according to a spokesperson for the
International Organization for Migration.
“If these numbers were confirmed, it would be the second
most serious shipwreck in the Mediterranean,” Flavio Di Giacomo tweeted.
Many critics, however, argue that little genuine progress
has been made in creating safe and legal routes for asylum seekers to Europe,
with too much recent emphasis on restricting asylum applications and
criminalizing SAR activities.
Following the incident, BBC London made a documentary on
people going from Pakistan to Europe. It showed an old man who came to Norway
in 1972. He was dressed in the best dress. There was a comfortable house in
Norway. He showed his palace-like house in Pakistan that he had built for a
vacation in Pakistan.
Then he showed the Museum of Norway where his dress was
kept which he was wearing while coming from Pakistan. It also had an intruded
strap which is worn by the villagers. He started crying bitterly and said that
when I go to Pakistan, I get relatives, but when I come to Norway, I get
humanity . . .
Today in the news,
the people of Greece took out a huge procession against their government for
not saving Pakistanis from drowning.
The biggest reason for going to Greece is greed for more.
In Pakistan parents themselves are uneducated and think matriculation and FA is
the only education they can best give to their children. Furthermore, as they
are fed up with the destruction of agriculture, the lands are either lost or
sold for compulsions from generation to generation and the last gamble is to
send the children out for a better future even at the cost of everything they
have.
They don't invest 3.5 million for business in Pakistan. Has
the state failed only in rural areas like Southern Punjab, Gujarat, etc. where
the largest consignment goes from here illegally?
Forty-seven boys were from Gujarat in the Greek tragedy.
And the majority belonged to the farming class. Why don't people from poor
areas of Lahore or Karachi go to this side?
The reason is that Gujarat is now the third to fourth
generation in Europe of Kashmir etc. It's a culture. You will find teachers of
English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish languages in Gujarat, Kashmir,
etc.
“Every lost life is a tragedy,” Maria Clara Martin, UNHCR’s
representative in Greece, said on Thursday. “These deaths could have been
avoided by creating more safe means of entry for people forced to flee
conflicts and persecution.”
Gianluca Rocco, the IoM’s head of mission in Greece, said
it was “urgent to have concrete and coordinated action from states to save
lives at sea and to reduce dangerous journeys by increasing safe and regular
migration routes”.
The underlying causes pushing so many to come to Europe –
war, natural disasters, the climate crisis, poverty, inequality, and food
insecurity – will not be going away anytime soon. However, in Pakistan, this is
lust for money and a race of competition who will have a big house after some
years.
The most important thing is that in these houses and palaces, the residents do not come, who with great desires, hopes and dreams,
had buried their blood and sweat in its walls.
Its makers come to stay only for a month after two years and others will enjoy all the luxuries without having done anything that worth achieving this life style.
