The last time Mohammed Yousaf talked to his son Sajid, on 8 June, the 28-year-old was waiting anxiously in Libya for smugglers to pack him and hundreds of others on to a boat bound for the other side of the Mediterranean.
Six days later, the fishing trawler sank off the coast of Greece. Sajid Yousaf, a shopkeeper and father of two from Khuiratta, a small town in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, is now among the hundreds of people missing, presumed dead.
"I never wanted him to go. His elder brother also advised him against this deadly sea journey," Mohammed Yousaf said through tears. "It is like you are walking on fire and it can engulf you. We told him many times, stop it. We even asked him to come back from Libya."
Yesterday, as tracking data cast further doubts on the Greek coastguard's account of the shipwreck, an initial investigation by police in Pakistan estimated about 800 people had been on board. Witness accounts had placed the number at between 400 and 750 people. Greek authorities have said 104 survivors and 78 bodies have been brought ashore.
Yousaf was one of 25 people from Khuiratta who had boarded the boat in Libya. Only two are known to have survived. He had planned to reach Italy, where his brother was living, having made a similar treacherous journey on a boat 12 years ago. In a video that has since gone viral, Yousaf promised to bring his four-year-old son a bicycle on his return home.
The Guardian talked to almost a dozen families in Khuiratta whose sons and nephews were on the boat. All said their relatives had paid 2.2m Pakistani rupees (£6,000) to an agent who promised to take them to Greece.
Many families took out hefty loans to cover the costs. Most of those who undertook the journey were hoping to eventually reach Italy, where about 500 people from the area had previously relocated.
This story is from the June 20, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the June 20, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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