In recent yeas, varoius groups of human smugglers emerged who started sending innocent people abroad through illegal and inhumane methods, this process is still going on.

 In recent years, hundreds of Pakistanis who traveled through illegal routes with the help of smugglers with the dream of going to Europe have lost their lives.  Libya is a major sea route for illegal immigrants to Europe where several incidents of capsizing of boats carrying immigrants to Italy, Greece and Spain have occurred.  Another boat from Libya has recently met with an accident in which 65 people, including Pakistanis, were on board and were going to Spain.

The boat capsized near the port of Marsala delle, northwest of the Libyan city of Zawiya. According to a foreign agency, 10 bodies have been recovered. This is the third boat accident in three months. In the first two accidents, more or less 88 Pakistanis had died. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has activated the Crisis Management Unit in connection with the recent Tripoli incident.  The government is taking strict measures to prevent these incidents. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has started strict screening at all airports in the country.

 In this regard, it is necessary that the ministries of interior, overseas Pakistanis and foreign affairs jointly formulate an effective action plan to eradicate human trafficking.  Along with making an example of those involved in illegal business, measures should also be taken to address the reasons that cause young people to leave their country and go to foreign countries. There is also a need to create awareness that young people must take advantage of employment abroad, but only through legal means. The number of deaths in accidents while trying to illegally travel to Europe from Pakistan is constantly increasing. A large number of them are young boys from villages who, before setting off on this journey, do not realize the difficulties they will face during the journey. 

Agents and groups involved in human trafficking show them such beautiful dreams of becoming rich after reaching Europe that these people are ready to spend their family’s life savings.  To some extent, their families are also to blame for this, who do not hesitate to put their wealth and children at stake to improve their status in society.  The continuous occurrence of such incidents also raises questions about the performance of law enforcement agencies. In this regard, several officers and staff members of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have been dismissed for their involvement in human trafficking.  In addition, the possible involvement of FIA officials working at important exit points of the country including Faisalabad, Sialkot, Lahore, Islamabad and Quetta airports is also being investigated and the Director General of FIA has also been replaced due to the slowness in the investigation in this matter.  This shows that the groups involved in human trafficking have also taken FIA officers and officials with them.

The trend of human trafficking or illegal travel to Europe is not limited to Pakistan, but according to a UN report, there has been a 25% increase in such incidents globally in the last three years.  To discourage this trend, the government has also started the process of confiscating the properties of FIA officials involved in human trafficking as well as human traffickers under the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2010.  However, at the same time, we need to take urgent steps to secure the future of our young generation. In this regard, we need to provide better employment opportunities for the youth and make them skilled so that they can legally go abroad and earn a good living.  According to an estimate, more than 60% of those who want to get a job lack the skills required in the services and manufacturing sectors. For this reason, many companies and investors in the country are reluctant to upgrade their production processes because the country lacks skilled human resources required for new jobs.

 In addition, according to the Pakistan Labor Force Survey 2020-21, there are 159.83 million people in the country of working age. Of these, 89.2 million are men and about 78.9 million are women. However, out of this working-age population, 26 million men and 62 million women are unemployed. Similarly, according to a 2023 report by the World Economic Forum, most of the unemployed people in Pakistan do not have any skills. According to the report, the number of skilled people in Pakistan is so low that it is ranked 132nd in a list of 143 countries in this regard.  Other South Asian countries included in this list are much better than Pakistan. It is worth mentioning here that there are a large number of excellent employment opportunities for skilled people in Pakistan and abroad, but the desire to obtain technical training among our youth is very low. In addition, there is no system in our education system to provide technical training to students with low academic ability and everyone wants to get a high government job after obtaining a university degree. On the other hand, there is also a shortage of technical education institutions in the country and their total number is around 3500 where the facility to train barely half a million people is available.

In such a situation, there is a need to increase the capacity of these institutions as well as improve the quality of technical courses taught in them. Similarly, other provinces and the federal government also need to understand that promoting and innovating technical training courses is the need of the hour to reduce economic growth and unemployment. In this regard, trade officers posted in embassies can be tasked with identifying specific trades for the preparation of manpower as per the needs of each country.  The information thus obtained should be further shared with the technical training institutions so that they can provide world-class training to the youth in these same trades and ensure employment. In this way, the demand for skilled people from Pakistan will increase globally and Pakistan will also get a better alternative for earning foreign exchange.  In the recent past, China has similarly increased its national income significantly by making its young generation skilled. In addition, India and Bangladesh have also accelerated the pace of development by training their youth in the skills required to provide employment.