Whose life matters more?

A year ago, in June 2023, several hundred Pakistanis died near the southwestern coast of Greece. Nearly 700 people, largely from Pakistan, Egypt and Syria, were crammed in the fishing trawler that was not fit for the sea journey. The ship capsized despite the Greek coastguard monitoring it for hours. Of the nearly 700 on the ship, just 104 were rescued, and 84 bodies recovered. The rest have been declared “missing” — creating an unimaginably painful scenario for the loved ones who are still waiting for information as they cling on to the faintest ray of fading hope. The lack of closure is only one of the many dimensions of this tragedy.

A year after one of the worst tragedies of its kind in the Mediterranean, the world has largely moved on. It is not simply the authorities in Pakistan that have lost interest (if they ever had one). The authorities in Greece have shown no appetite to understand why the boat capsized, who was responsible and who did what as the tragedy unfolded in real time. There are accusations that the coastguard did nothing (or worse made things worse by trying to tow the boat). Despite the tragedy happening over a year ago, the investigation by the Greek authorities are still at a preliminary stage. There is no pressure by governments in Egypt, Syria or Pakistan to find answers or get justice. Could it be that the people who died were not viewed as worthy of diplomatic inquiry? We all know which socio-economic group the migrants belong to. We all know who tries their luck on a dilapidated fishing trawler. It is not hard to see that the lives of the poor matter little.

On the home front, the bereaved families continue to struggle with anxiety, painful personal loss and a dire financial situation. Many had borrowed exorbitant sums of money to pay the smugglers with the hopes of finding a better life and getting out of the economic misery that has become a permanent feature of their lives. Just like you and me, they want a decent life for themselves and their families. The crippling debt and worsening economic outlook gives the families little hope. Few newspapers that cared to cover on the first anniversary of the tragedy, and interviewed the family members of the deceased or the missing reported an increased desire to leave among family members as they see no way out of the economic injustice.

As people who care about other human beings, and not just those who reduce people to their social status, we all should demand answers — from the authorities in Pakistan and those in Europe. But at the same time we should also demand answers from ourselves. In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, many had become high priests of morality and patriotism, condemning the poor for imagining a life out of misery and injustice. Instead of asking why people are taking such extraordinary risks, the privileged on TV quickly concluded that the poor are gullible, not smart, not patriotic enough and certainly lack faith. Why else, they would ask, anyone want to leave?

The high priests have since moved on to the other juicier stories — but a large fraction among the rest of us does not even remember, or care to remember, the tragedy. As I searched for recent news stories on the issue, I found them almost exclusively in the foreign newspapers. National newspapers were silent — and whatever little was being reported was in the English press. The Urdu press was more interested in the most recent Bollywood breakup.

We can do a hypothetical experiment — imagine if it was a tragedy that involved affluent persons, or those who were politically well-connected, would we still have a collective amnesia or the collective shrug of the shoulder? We should ask ourselves: is this who we are?