Walking Borders, a migrant rights organisation, said Thursday that it fears up to 50 migrants who were trying to reach Spain by boat from West Africa drowned.
36 individuals were recovered by Moroccan officials on Wednesday from a boat that had left Mauritania on January 2. According to the group located in Madrid and Navarra, the boat reportedly carried 86 migrants, including 66 Pakistanis.
Walking Borders said it had reported the missing boat to the appropriate countries’ authorities six days prior. The maritime rescue agency in Spain was contacted on January 12 by Alarm Phone, an NGO that provides an emergency hotline for migrants who are stranded at sea. However, the service stated that it had no information regarding the vessel.
In a post on X (previously Twitter), Fernando Clavijo, the regional leader of Spain’s Canary Islands, noted Walking Borders’ article and extended his condolences for the victims. He urged Europe and Spain to act to stop tragedies like these. Clavijo remarked, “Africa cannot remain in the Atlantic as its graveyard.” “They cannot put up with this humanitarian drama any longer.”
Read more: Pakistan’s unprecedented brain drain has slowed down due to visa rejections
According to a post on X by Helena Maleno, CEO of Walking Borders, 44 of the drowning victims were from Pakistan. She claimed that “they suffered for 13 days at sea without any attempts at rescue.”
Walking Borders reports that 10,457 migrants, or 30 individuals every day on average, perished in 2024 while trying to enter Spain, mostly by travelling from West African countries like Senegal and Mauritania to the Canary Islands via the Atlantic.
Over 40 Pakistanis were allegedly among the 80 people on board when the boat collapsed close to Morocco, according to confirmation from Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday.
The FO said in a press release that they were notified of the event by the Pakistani embassy in Rabat. A camp in Dakhla is housing a number of people, including Pakistanis. Local authorities are in communication with our embassy in Rabat. To help the Pakistani citizens and offer the required support, a team has been sent to Dakhla.
Additionally, the FO released emergency contact information for impacted persons and their families and activated its Crisis Management Unit (CMU). For additional support, Consular Assistant Noman Ali and Acting Ambassador Rabia Kasuri can be reached by phone and WhatsApp.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif pledged tough measures against people traffickers and voiced his profound worry over the event, calling for a report. Carelessness will not be accepted. He said, “Strong measures are being put in place to combat human trafficking.”
In addition, President Asif Ali Zardari conveyed sorrow over the deaths and emphasised the necessity of strong anti-trafficking efforts.