The cost of staying

"No one leaves home, unless home is the mouth of a shark," wrote a British-Somali poet named Warsan Shire - 14 years before one of the deadliest maritime incidents in the Mediterranean took the lives of 207 Pakistani migrants hoping to land in Italy. Imagine this: you're one of around 750 migrants cramped together in a trawler meant for 400 people, trying to illegally cross international borders without a single lifejacket onboard. When the probability of disaster increases, you refuse help because you haven't yet reached your destination - not once, not twice but thrice. What would compel you to do so?

"No one would leave home unless home chased you," reads another line of the poem. It is evident that those who lost their lives were being chased, because the 2023 incident was neither the beginning nor the end. In the past four years, a total of 335 Pakistani migrants have died while attempting to reach Europe through illegal channels. These are people escaping poverty, unemployment, glass ceilings, and little to no opportunities for upward mobility.

Pakistan, in coordination with the European Union, has surely taken effective steps to combat the crisis of illegal migration. During just the first two months of 2026, illegal migration fell by 64% owing to stricter measures. But it needs to reflect further on why people are willing to put their children in peril for the smallest glimmer of hope. Failure here belongs to the state - its failure to generate employment, failure to provide skill development, failure to uplift its citizens.

Curbing illegal migration is a win for the state, not its citizens. By doing so, it manages its reputation, curbs innocent deaths on its watch and cleans its slate. Those who now can't leave are stuck bearing the cost of living in an unliveable land.