ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial emphasised on Wednesday that the recent boat tragedy on Greek shores, which claimed the lives of more than 300 people from Pakistan, was a grave issue concerning human rights.
At least 350 people, almost all of them men, from Pakistan were on an overloaded boat that capsized and sank in open seas off Greece last week, according to the interior minister who has promised to arrest and prosecute the human smugglers responsible.
The fishing boat with a capacity of 400 people had over 700 people on board when it sank on June 14, Rana Sanaullah Khan told the parliament.
Hundreds of people from countries including Egypt, Syria and Pakistan were crammed on the 20- to 30-metre-long (65- to 100-foot) fishing boat when it sank about 50 miles (80 km) from the southern Greek town of Pylos.
During a hearing of petitions related to the trafficking of minors, alongside Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Bandial Wednesday drew attention to the tragic incident, highlighting how innocent and impoverished individuals were deceived into going abroad with promises of better employment opportunities.
“Human traffickers dupe citizens who pay exorbitant amounts, and even children and women have become victims of this heinous crime,” said the top judge.
Raising a crucial question, the judge asked the director general of the human rights ministry whether the government possessed statistics on the number of children being smuggled.
In response, the director general said: “Unfortunately, accurate data is not available.”
Justice Bandial pointed out the “ambiguity” in the laws against human smuggling in 2018, underscoring the urgent need for a “specialist force” dedicated to enforcing these laws.
“The responsibility of curbing human smuggling also falls on the police,” he added. “The Supreme Court had previously instructed provincial governments to actively combat human trafficking.”
During the proceedings, the chief justice also recalled the Tayyaba abuse case. The case came to light in 2016 when images of the minor domestic worker, named only as Tayyaba, 10, who suffered abuse in the household of former additional district and sessions judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan and his wife Maheen Zafar, circulated on social media.
Tayyaba was rescued from their residence on December 28, 2016, with visible injuries, and a first information report was filed against her employers the following day.
Despite a compromise reached between Ali Khan and Tayyaba’s parents on January 2, 2017, the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the matter two days later, firmly stating that “no ‘agreements’ can be reached in matters concerning fundamental human rights.”
Discussing the Tayyaba case in the current hearing, Justice Bandial mentioned that Tayyaba is now a 9th-grade student, highlighting her journey since the incident.
“Tayyaba was abandoned by her parents and is currently living in an SOS village,” he revealed. “Our goal is not only to protect children but also to empower them,” the judge added.
Consequently, the court ordered reports from all provinces regarding measures taken to combat human smuggling and data on out-of-school children to be submitted within a month.
Pakistan’s economic meltdown in recent months has spurred more people to risk their lives to reach Europe in search of a better future.
The government has since the incident claimed to have arrested several human traffickers and their agents who told authorities that their ring leader was based in Libya.
These human smugglers had charged around $8,000 a person to take them to Europe illegally through the sea route after flying legally to Dubai, Egypt and Libya, authorities said.
Not a single human trafficker has been convicted for over five years, Khan told the parliament, citing data, adding that this was mostly due to victims’ families agreeing pardons in exchange for money.
— With Reuters
