On a heat Could night, Touqeer Pervez packed two pairs of trousers, three shirts, a toothbrush and toothpaste right into a small black backpack. The lanky 28-year-old with a neatly trimmed beard was on the point of depart Bandli, his village in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, on a three-country journey that might see him travelling throughout land, air and sea within the hope of reaching Italy.
His household’s unfinished home, partly roofless and with partitions needing plaster, was bursting with chatter and laughter. Relations and pals sat underneath the open sky within the veranda, as a pedestal fan desperately tried, however failed, to beat the humidity within the air.
As they cracked jokes, Haseeb, the youngest of Touqeer’s siblings, reminded his brother that in Italy, he would wrestle to indulge his favorite interest, enjoying cricket.
But amid the banter, Touqeer’s nervous mom Tazeen was nonetheless attempting to persuade her son in opposition to leaving. Her eldest son Tanweer had already left for the United Arab Emirates to seek out work in January, and Tazeen was not able to let go of her second, and most beloved, son.
Touqeer, nevertheless, was calm and adamant.
“If I die, I’ll die, but when I succeed and attain Italy, no less than I may assist our household. Let me go please,” he pleaded along with his mom.
The subsequent morning, on Could 5, Touqeer and some different village residents left on a 150km (93-mile) bus journey to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, the place they caught a flight to the southern metropolis of Karachi. The subsequent leg took them to Dubai, from the place they jumped on a connecting flight to Cairo, and finally made their option to Libya on Could 7.
Italy, simply throughout the Mediterranean Sea, gave the impression to be virtually inside touching distance.