Dunki 2.0 goes Crypto: hawala in Pakistan's $300 million smuggling machine

In a busy Italian town square, a man dances to a hip-shaking Punjabi song. People gather around him in delight. Two tourists take part in his vlog and lean in to kiss his cheek. Others pause, watch, smile, and move on. On Tik Tok, over 1.8 million followers watch his content. Within minutes of the videos going live, the comments section explodes. Whats App numbers are dropped into the feed. “Europe is my dream,” says one person. “Koi visa lagwade,” says another (Someone please help me with a visa). Another one chimes in with, “Brother, guide me on how to reach Pavia.” Not everyone online is impressed with this dancer, however. He is accused of immorality, forgetting his roots, and giving Pakistan a “bad image abroad”. He smiles into the camera and claps back, “Saddo shareeko,” a line meant for jealous relatives watching back home. For the young ones watching from Pakistan the Italian square, the attention, are proof that he made it which is all that matters. These yearning souls are the human grist that keeps the mill of Pakistan’s human smuggling machine running as a 80-billion-rupee industry. Social media recruits for it; cash, hawala, and cryptocurrency fund it; and smugglers now rely on valid passports to execute it. The boy from Kharian In Gujrat’s Kharian Tehsil, 17-year-old Arif is one of these hopefuls. A pseudonym protects his identity. In his village, migration is a rite of passage. Arif spends his nights scrolling vlogs and reels of Pakistanis abroad. “Ever since I grew up, I have wanted to go abroad,” he tells Dawn. “My relatives and villagers have also gone, but my dreams came from the lifestyle I saw online. They are living in heaven. And what are we doing here?” The money is his first hurdle. His mother has jewelry, but his sister is getting married next year, and his father has gone into debt. He believes, however, that once he is in Belgium, it won’t be tight anymore because he will earn. The agent he contacted online, Munawwar or Raja from Mandi Baha