GUJRAT/MADRID: According to an NGO and the relatives of the dead, some 50 Pakistanis perished aboard a migrant boat while attempting to enter Europe illegally across the Atlantic Ocean.
According to migrant rights organization Walking Borders, the boat carrying 86 migrants—66 of them were from Pakistan—left Mauritania, a country in West Africa, for the Canary Islands in Spain on Thursday.
Walking Borders CEO Helena Maleno stated on X that 36 individuals were rescued by Moroccan officials on Wednesday, while 44 of the persons thought to have drowned were from Pakistan.
For thirteen days, the ship was left adrift in the water. However, the reason of the migrants’ deaths is unknown.
The boat carrying 80 people “capsized” near the coast of the disputed Western Sahara area, according to a post on X from Pakistan’s Foreign Office.
In a camp close to Dakhla, a number of survivors—including Pakistanis—are staying. Local authorities are in contact with our embassy in Rabat. A team from the embassy has also been sent to Dakhla to help the Pakistani citizens and offer the support they require.
According to the FO, the Crisis Management Unit was formed, and Ishaq Dar, the foreign minister and deputy prime minister, gave government agencies instructions to provide all assistance to the impacted Pakistanis.
Though it was unclear who they held accountable for the abuse, the victims’ families have stated that their loved ones perished as a result of torture.
Although Dawn was unable to independently confirm the accusations, they did appear in recordings of phone conversations between survivors and their family members.
Over the phone, one of the survivors informed his family that local officials “physically tortured” the migrants, hitting several of them with hammers.
The dead bodies of eight Pakistanis were also being held at a Moroccan government hospital where the survivors were admitted.
Local reports claim that some young people from Punjab’s Mandi Bahauddin and Gujrat districts fled the nation about four months ago in order to enter Europe illegally.
Only 19 people, they said, made it through the 13-day ordeal, which left them stranded in open waters.
Only eight dead bodies, according to the survivors, made it to land; the rest were discarded into the ocean.
According to reports, at least 12 of the dead were from the Kharian villages of Dhola, Jaura Karnana, and Ghurko. The federal government has been requested to take action to bring the dead corpses back by the victims’ heirs and survivors.
Soon after learning of the terrible deaths in Africa, the victims’ families and local residents gathered at their homes. Information about the victims and their families is being gathered by the FIA, which has begun an investigation into the incident.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that severe measures would be taken against those responsible for the horrible act of human trafficking and asked authorities for a report on the occurrence.
Due to a conflict between local pro-independence forces and the Moroccan government, a number of non-state actors are also engaged in the Western Sahara region, where the incident occurred.
According to Walking Borders, it reported the missing boat to police in all participating nations six days ago. A boat in difficulty was reported to Spain’s maritime rescue service on January 12 by Alarm Phone, an NGO that offers an emergency phone line for migrants who are lost at sea.
According to Reuters, Spain’s maritime rescue service was notified on January 10 about a ship that had departed Nouakchott, Mauritania, and was having issues.
The service informed surrounding ships and conducted unsuccessful air searches, but said it was unable to determine whether it was the same boat.