A boat carrying 80 passengers capsized near Morocco on Thursday, killing around 50, over half of the deceased were Pakistani.
According to Reuters, the people were trying to make the crossing from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands. Moroccan authorities rescued 36 people on Wednesday from a boat that had left Mauritania on January 2 with 86 migrants, including 66 Pakistanis, on board, a migrant rights group Walking Borders said Thursday.
Walking Borders CEO Helena Maleno said on X, that 44 of those presumed to have drowned were from Pakistan. “They spent 13 days of anguish on the crossing without anyone coming to rescue them,” she said.
In a statement issued by the Foreign Office, the Pakistani embassy in Rabat, Morocco, had informed the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, about the incident.
According to an X post by Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, the boat capsized near the Moroccan port of Dakhla.
Press Release
Incident of boat capsizing off the coast of Morocco pic.twitter.com/0ZNvrjWf4m
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) January 16, 2025
“Several survivors, including Pakistanis, are lodged in a camp near Dakhla. Our embassy of 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 Foreign Office was quoted by Dawn News.
According to the report, the Foreign Office stated that its Crisis Management Unit had been mobilised, and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar directed government agencies to provide all possible assistance to the affected Pakistanis.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sought a report on the incident from authorities and stated that 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. Strong steps are being taken against human trafficking,” he said in a statement.
Spain’s maritime rescue service said that it had received information about a missing boat on January 10. It said that the vessel had left Nouakchott in Mauritania and was experiencing problems but it could not confirm if it was the same boat. The service said it had carried out air searches without success and had warned nearby ships.
Walking Borders said it had alerted authorities from all countries involved six days ago about the missing boat. Meanwhile, Alarm Phone, an NGO which provides an emergency phone line to migrants lost at sea, also said that it had alerted Spain’s service on January 12 about a boat in distress.
Citing the Walking Borders’ post on X, the Canary Islands’ regional leader Fernando Clavijo expressed his sorrow for the victims of the latest wreck and urged Spain and Europe to take action 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.”
In 2024, a record of 10,457 migrants died trying to reach Spain most while attempting to cross the Atlantic route from West African countries such as Mauritania and Senegal to the Canary islands, according to Walking Borders, reported Reuters.
