Every few months, headlines report another boat capsizing in the Mediterranean or the Aegean. In April 2026, at least 20 Pakistanis went missing off the coast of Italy, many from Gujrat and Gujranwala. Families mourn sons who had paid traffickers thousands of dollars for a chance at a better life. These are not isolated tragedies. Pakistanis consistently appear among the dead on irregular migration routes. In 2025 alone, more than a hundred lost their lives or disappeared attempting to reach foreign shores.

Yet these deaths reveal something deeper than desperation. Migration from Pakistan is usually discussed in terms of volume and remittances; far less attention is paid to who is actually able to migrate and who is left behind.

Behind every drowning lies an organised chain of facilitators. This year, a dismissed Elite Force policeman from Gujrat was arrested for human smuggling, already listed in the FIA’s Red Book. A financial handler from the same region was caught with Rs10 million, linked to Libya-based traffickers. In Islamabad, authorities apprehended a high-profile smuggler connected to the Morocco boat disaster. Even enforcement institutions are compromised: a large share of officials disciplined for trafficking and graft in early 2026 came from Lahore, Faisalabad, and Islamabad.

This geography is not incidental. These are the very regions that dominate outward migration. Legal and illegal pathways are sustained by overlapping social networks—agents, financiers, returnees, and facilitators—concentrated in specific districts. Migration, whether regular or irregular, moves through established corridors of access.

This is why the profile of migrants challenges conventional assumptions. The poorest Pakistanis are not the ones crossing borders; they are the ones left behind. Migration requires capital—airfare, documentation, and often smuggling fees that can reach 1.5 to 2 million rupees. It demands information, connections, and the ability to navigate bureaucratic or illicit systems. Those in absolute poverty lack these entry tickets.

The data makes this clear. Between 2019 and 2023, Punjab consistently accounted for more than half of Pakistan’s emigrant workers, rising to........

© The Friday Times