When Muhammad Nadeem left home in eastern Pakistan, he asked his mother to pray for his safe passage to Europe then slipped away before she could object, reported AFP Ali Hasnain showed off the new clothes he would wear as he prepared for the long journey west to a better life. Both men departed from Gujrat, in Punjab province, and although they did not know each other, became fellow travellers on the human trafficking trail, escaping Pakistan’s rapidly deteriorating economy. They died on the continent’s doorstep last month, relatives say, after boarding a boat in Libya and floundering in Mediterranean waters – the latest lives dashed on the world’s deadliest migrant route. “It was like heaven had fallen when we first heard the news,” said Nadeem’s mother Kausar Bibi, as his wife keened in another room. “I cannot bear this pain,” she told AFP in their family home, a basic concrete husk. Pakistan is in economic freefall. A dire downturn – caused by decades of mismanagement and political instability – has drained dollar reserves, spurred runaway inflation and caused widespread factory closures. The desperate situation is creating an incentive for Pakistanis to take perilous, illegal routes to Europe. Nadeem, 40, … Continue reading Pakistani migrants play deadly ‘game’ chasing future abroad