"It doesn't matter if they are 12 or 18 years old, we take boys even at that age, there is no need for them to worry about that."
A people smuggler in Quetta, who organizes illegal routes from Pakistan, explains the business model to an undercover BBC reporter. For 2,5 million Pakistani rupees ($9.000), a young man can reach Europe "alive and well" in about three weeks, he says, crossing the Iranian border on foot and then traveling by road through Turkey to Italy.
His tone is soothing.
“He should bring some snacks. He definitely has to bring good, quality shoes and two or three changes of clothes. And that is it. He can buy water in Quetta. He will call when he gets to Quetta and a guy will come to pick him up."
The smuggler - Azam - claims that every day hundreds of migrants cross the Pakistani border into Iran. He downplays the risks to our reporter, who introduces himself as a man who wants to bring his brother to the UK.
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With inflation running rampant in the country and the Pakistani rupee plummeting in value, many people are looking to move away. Pakistani authorities told the BBC that in the first six months of 2023, nearly 13.000 people left Pakistan to cross into Libya or Egypt, compared with around 7.000 in all of 2022.
The journeys they embark on are often dangerous. In June, hundreds of migrants died when an overcrowded fishing boat sank off the Greek coast. At least 350 Pakistanis are believed to have been on board.
“Even if he gets caught along the way, he'll just end up back home. No one will kidnap him and demand a ransom," says Azam.
But migrants who try to travel via Libya could fall prey to paramilitaries and criminal gangs. One Pakistani we spoke to, who reached Italy through smugglers, says he was kidnapped and held captive for three months in Libya.
Sajid (not his real name) says he was released only after his family paid a $2.500 ransom.
"Game DM"
Many traffickers operate in plain sight on popular social networks such as Facebook and TikTok - through accounts with tens of thousands of followers.
Since May, the BBC has been monitoring social media accounts promoting illegal migration routes. We discovered that smugglers' tactics are masked by a web of euphemisms that allow them to bypass content moderation and law enforcement. They arrange travel and payment privately through direct messages and Vocap.
Codes such as "danki" and "igra" are used to promote illegal routes to Europe. "Danki" refers to boat crossings, and "game" describes the journeys that migrants have to take from start to finish.
The three most common routes from Pakistan pass through Turkey, Iran or Libya before reaching their final destination in Europe.
After the shipwreck disaster in Greece, the people smugglers we tracked are increasingly promoting "taxi games" - short for road routes through Eastern Europe - as their preferred method of smuggling.
Smugglers' social media accounts post footage of groups of migrants hiding in the woods and mini-vans with the agents' names and phone numbers scrawled on top. On Vocap, customers and "agents" exchange messages about the next "game" in group chats with hundreds of members.
Azam specializes in "taxi games," claiming they are safer than sea routes. But even those land routes carry certain risks.
The UNHCR says freezing temperatures in winter as migrants try to cross the border on foot, as well as road accidents, have already led to deaths.
Five other smugglers we spoke to also recommend “taxi routes.” One said he could transfer someone to the UK from France for $1.228.
We presented our evidence to Meta, which owns Facebook and Vocap, and TikTok, that their platforms are being used for illegal human trafficking.
Meta took down all the links to the Facebook groups and pages we pointed them to, but did not take down the profiles related to them. It has not removed Vocap groups, because its full encryption policy protects privacy and does not allow moderation.
TikTok took down the links to the accounts we brought to their attention. He says the company "has zero tolerance for content that facilitates human trafficking" and that it has "removed accounts and content that violate their policies."
"Death Journey"
Sajid left his town in Pakistan-administered Kashmir nearly a year ago because of the lack of business opportunities for young people in the area - and the conflict along the border with Indian-administered Kashmir. He lived very close to the Line of Control - de facto border between India and Pakistan in a disputed area - but has now been in Italy for 10 months.
He says he was inspired to travel to Europe by a combination of TikTok videos he saw online and a friend who left Pakistan a few months before him.
"I heard that it is very easy to get here and that it takes me 15-20 days. But it was all a lie. It took me more than seven months," he says.
Sajid is awaiting the outcome of his asylum claim in Italy and says he now regrets taking the illegal route, calling it a “journey of death.” But he regularly posts videos on TikTok about his new life in Italy.
Several clips chronicle his route from Pakistan, mostly showing an excited young man on his journey. These upbeat videos follow a TikTok trend in which many young Pakistanis like him who arrive in Europe participate.
In one shot, signed "From Pakistan to Libya," a friend he was traveling with takes a selfie-style photo of them both sitting on a plane and smiling.
He says it's an "art form" to publish videos like these and claims they are "not a true reflection of society".
Two weeks after our journalist first contacted the smuggler, we called him again - this time revealing that we were BBC journalists.
When we asked Azam about the dangers of the illegal routes he promotes, he hung up.
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Bonus video:
