• The immigrant rights group estimates that 44 of those killed were from Pakistan.
• The ship with 86 migrants left Mauritania on January 2; drifted for 12 days
• FO says the boat capsized; Victims’ families claim their loved ones were “tortured”
GUJRAT/MADRID: Around 50 Pakistanis have died on a migrant boat, while trying to illegally cross the Atlantic Ocean to reach Europe, according to an NGO and the families of the victims.
The ship with 86 migrants, including 66 Pakistanis on board, left the West African country of Mauritania for Spain’s Canary Islands, migrant rights group Walking Borders said on Thursday.
Moroccan authorities rescued 36 people on Wednesday, while 44 of those presumed drowned were from Pakistan, Walking Borders executive director Helena Maleno said on X.
The ship remained stranded in the ocean for 13 days. However, it is unclear what caused the migrants’ deaths.
In a post on
“Several survivors, including Pakistanis, are staying in a camp near Dakhla. Our embassy in Rabat is in contact with local authorities. Additionally, a team from the embassy has been sent to Dakhla to help Pakistani citizens and provide them with necessary assistance.”
The FO said its Crisis Management Unit was activated and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar directed government agencies to extend all possible facilitation to affected Pakistanis.
However, the victims’ families have claimed that their loved ones allegedly died due to torture, but it was not clear who they blamed for the mistreatment.
The claims emerged in recordings of telephone conversations between the survivors and their families, but Sunrise was unable to independently verify these claims.
One of the survivors told his family by phone that the migrants had been “physically tortured” by local officials and that some had been beaten with hammers.
The survivors were admitted to a government hospital in Morocco, where the bodies of eight Pakistanis were also kept.
According to local sources, several youths from Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts of Punjab left the country about four months ago to enter Europe illegally.
They claimed that only 19 people survived the 13-day ordeal, during which they were stranded in open water.
Survivors claimed that only eight bodies washed ashore and the rest were thrown into the sea.
At least 12 of the deceased were said to be from three villages (Dhola, Jaura Karnana and Ghurko) of Kharian. Survivors and heirs of the deceased victims have urged the federal government to take action to recover the bodies.
Relatives and local residents gathered at the victims’ homes shortly after hearing the news of the tragic deaths in Africa. The FIA has launched an investigation into the incident and has begun collecting information about the victims and their families.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked authorities for a report on the incident and said strict action would be taken against those involved in the heinous act of human trafficking.
“No negligence of any kind will be tolerated in this regard. Firm measures are being taken against human trafficking,” he said in a statement.
Several non-state actors are also active in the Western Sahara region, where the incident took place, due to a dispute between local independence forces and the Moroccan government.
Walking Borders said it had alerted authorities in all countries involved six days ago about the missing ship. Alarm Phone, an NGO that provides an emergency telephone line for migrants lost at sea, also said it had alerted Spain’s maritime rescue service on January 12 about a ship in distress.
Citing the Spanish maritime rescue service, Reuters reported that the agency received information on January 10 about a ship that had left Nouakchott, Mauritania and was experiencing problems.
The service said it could not confirm whether it was the same ship, adding that it had carried out unsuccessful aerial searches and warned nearby ships.
With contributions from Reuters
Published in Dawn, January 17, 2025
