By our correspondent
MADRID: As many as 50 migrants attempting to reach Spain by boat from West Africa may have drowned, migrant rights group Walking Borders said on Thursday.
Moroccan authorities on Wednesday rescued 36 people from a boat that had departed from Mauritania on January 2, the group based in Madrid and Navarra said, and had carried 86 migrants, including 66 Pakistanis.
The rights group said it had alerted authorities from all countries involved six days ago about the missing boat.
The boat left for Spain on January 2, relatives of the drowned Pakistani migrants have said. According to them, the human traffickers had anchored the boat in the sea and were demanding more money from them.
Alarm Phone, an NGO that provides an emergency phone line for migrants lost at sea, said it had alerted Spain’s maritime rescue service on January 12. The service said it did not have any information about the boat.
Citing the Walking Borders’ post on social media platform X, the Canary Islands’ regional leader Fernando Clavijo expressed his sorrow for the victims and urged Spain and Europe to act to prevent further tragedies. “The Atlantic cannot continue to be the graveyard of Africa,” Clavijo said on X. “They cannot continue to turn their backs on this humanitarian drama.”
Walking Borders CEO Helena Maleno said in a post on X that 44 of those who drowned were from Pakistan. “They spent 13 days of anguish on the crossing without anyone coming to rescue them,” she said.
The Foreign Office in a press release said, “Our Embassy in Rabat (Morocco) has informed us, that a boat carrying 80 passengers, including several Pakistani nationals, setting off from Mauritania, has capsized near the Moroccan port of Dakhla. Several survivors, including Pakistanis, are lodged in a camp near Dakhla. Our Embassy in Rabat is in touch with local authorities. Additionally, a team from the Embassy has been dispatched to Dakhla to facilitate the Pakistani nationals and provide necessary assistance.
“The Crisis Management Unit (CMU) in the Foreign Ministry has been activated and the deputy prime minister/foreign minister has instructed the relevant government agencies to extend all possible facilitation to the affected Pakistanis. The contact details of Ministry’s CMU and our focal persons in Rabat are as follows: Contact Details of the Crisis Management Unit (CMU) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad: 24/7 Crisis Response Center, Telephone: 051-9207887, E-mail: cmu1@mofa.gov.pk
Contact Details of Embassy of Pakistan, Rabat: Ms Rabia Kasuri (Acting Ambassador): +212 689 52 23 65 (WhatsApp) Mr Noman Ali, Consular Assistant: +92 310 2204672 (WhatsApp)
“Further information shall be shared as it becomes available.”
Meanwhile, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials have disclosed that families of the boat tragedy victims, mainly from Gujrat district, have been reaching out to share heartbreaking accounts of their loved ones’ ordeal. According to reports, the migrants, who set off from Mauritania on January 2, had been in contact with their families before the boat vanished.
An FIA spokesperson told The News that teams in Gujrat, Sarai Alamgir and Mandi Bahauddin are in communication with the affected families. “The identities of families are being kept confidential to safeguard their privacy and security,” the official added.
The boat, carrying 86 migrants — 66 of whom were Pakistani — was missing for several days until Moroccan authorities rescued 36 survivors.
Walking Borders, a migrant rights group based in Spain, has confirmed that 50 individuals, including 44 Pakistanis, are presumed dead. Among the deceased were 12 residents of Gujrat.
As many as 12 people were from Gujrat, according to the survivors of the accident. The boat left Morocco for Spain on January 2 but human traffickers stopped the boat at sea and demanded more money from the families of the youth through their facilitators. While some youth died of starvation, 12 of the deceased belonged to different villages of Gujarat, including Jora, Karnana, Thatha. Among those Atif, Akif, Rehan and Jani have been identified.
One of the Pakistanis, Mohammad Waqas, belonged to Akbar Ghanuki village on the outskirts of Kamoke tehsil. His family also confirmed his death.
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