The families of the Pakistani youths who died in the ship accident in Greece are mourning.

Javed Iqbal, a Pakistani carpenter working in Saudi Arabia, told BBC Urdu that he deeply regrets the decision to send his 13-year-old son to Europe illegally.

“Agents sent dozens of village boys to Greece and Italy,” he says. “My son, who was stubborn and a victim of their tricks, repeatedly told us, ‘If you don’t send me to Europe, I will leave home.’

Javed’s son, Mohammad Abid, was among five Pakistani nationals who authorities confirmed died in waters off Greece last week after three boats carrying migrants capsized.

Pakistani authorities have urged parents to prevent their children from going on such trips. But that hasn’t stopped hundreds of young people from trying.

At least 47 people have been rescued from the latest disaster, according to embassy officials in Greece, with 35 people missing after the Greek Coast Guard halted rescue efforts on Wednesday.

BBC Urdu spoke to the grieving families of the two victims in central Punjab’s Pasrur district.

Abid was the third of Javed’s four children.

“Abid’s older brother and sister go to school, but Abid stopped going to school,” says Javed, who lives and works in Saudi Arabia.

He added that in the past two years, many of his relatives, as well as other boys from his village, have gone to Greece through agents.

All these boys would upload videos on social media after arriving in Greece. After seeing the videos shared by these boys on social media, Abid would ask when will the day come when I will also go to Europe?

“I told him several times that you are still young, you can grow up, but he persisted,” says Javed. “I told him to come to me in Saudi Arabia, but all he wanted was to go to Europe.”

In a recent press conference, Pakistan’s ambassador to Greece, Amir Aftab Qureshi, expressed his surprise that a child was included among the five Pakistani citizens who died in the accidents. He added that small children are also among the survivors.

He said that this trend of sending children illegally is very dangerous.

But Javed says that whenever Abid returned home after meeting these agents, he would threaten to leave the house if his mother did not collect the money to send him.

“She would make me talk to him on the phone, and I would explain to him. He would agree temporarily, but after a day or two, he would go off the rails again,” says Javed.

So Javed sold some of his agricultural land and his wife sold some of her jewellery. They paid an agent 2.56 million Pakistani rupees (£7,300; $9,200) to bring Abid to Europe.

Javed says his son arrived in Egypt from Faisalabad Airport and then went to Libya, where he stayed for two months and was in daily contact with his family.

“He was happy and kept saying that there were some difficulties, but they were temporary and he would reach his destination soon,” says Javed. Little did we know that his destination was not Europe but death.

“When there was a rumor of a boat capsizing in the sea near Greece, we tried to get information but nothing came out,” he recalls.

The family was eventually able to contact a friend in Greece, who went to a migrant hospital and found Abid’s body. He later also received a call from the Pakistani embassy in Greece.

Another family in Ocha Jaja, another village in central Punjab, is grieving the death of their son. Irfan Arshad’s 19-year-old son Mohammad Sufyan also died in the accident, which was confirmed by Pakistani officials in Greece.

According to Irfan Arshad, the agent tricked him till the end by telling him that he was sending his son safely in a boat and there was no need to worry.

“When there was a rumor in the village that the boat had capsized near Yunnan, darkness fell before our eyes,” says Irfan. “It feels like I have bought my son’s death with my own hands for three lakh rupees.”

Irfan, who owns an oil and fertilizer shop, has four sons. Two of them are living in Bahrain while the third son is already in Greece. He sold an acre of land to send his youngest son to Greece.

FIA has registered a case of human trafficking against four persons for the death of Mohammad Sufyan. According to Irfan’s statement in the report, after Sufyan was taken to Libya, the agent assured him that Sufyan would be transferred to Greece soon. Instead, Sufyan was kept in a safe house in Libya for two months and given only one meal a day.

“My son contracted cholera from eating stale food, which made him very weak,” says Irfan. “Every time we spoke to Sufyan, he seemed very worried. We kept thinking that maybe it was because he was away from home for the first time and that he would be very happy when he got to Greece.”

After he was finally put on a boat to Greece, Sufyan’s family received a call from his colleagues about his death.

In 2023, a boat carrying illegal immigrants sank in the same area of ​​Greece, killing 262 Pakistanis. After the tragedy, the authorities vowed to take tough action against agents involved in human trafficking.

Such sentiments were echoed again Wednesday as officials discussed the latest tragedy. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the frequent occurrence of such incidents is a cause of concern for Pakistan and vowed to take strict action against those involved in human trafficking.

Abdul Qadir Qamar, Regional Director of the Federal Investigation Agency, told BBC Urdu that the accused have been running the business of human trafficking in different countries for a long time.

He said that ‘FIA’s investigation so far has revealed that the accused who illegally send the youth abroad in Pasaror belong to the same family’. “And these suspects have so far sent hundreds of people abroad illegally.”

The problem, he said, was that families of boat accident survivors often did not want to take action against the agents.

The court has so far registered 174 cases of human trafficking. Only four have been convicted.

Irfan says Pakistan’s foreign ministry has told him Sufyan’s body will arrive in Pakistan in early January – but the wait is too long for his family.

“We are dying moment by moment,” says Irfan. “Until we see the body of our son, we shall be neither alive nor dead.

“How will those whose sons die find peace?”