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.
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.
A record 10,457 migrants, or 30 people a day, died trying to reach Spain in 2024, 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.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday confirmed that a boat carrying 80 passengers capsized near Morocco, with over 40 Pakistanis reportedly among the dead.
A FO press release issued today said the Pakistani embassy in Rabat had informed the ministry about the incident. “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 FO said its Crisis Management Unit was activated and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar instructed government agencies to extend all possible facilitation to the affected Pakistanis. It said the CMU could be contacted at (051-9207887) or (cmu1@mofa.gov.pk) while Acting Ambassador Rabia Kasuri and Consular Assistant Noman Ali at the Rabat embassy could be contacted at (+212 689 52 23 65) and (+92 310 2204672), respectively, on WhatsApp.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sought a report on the incident from authorities 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. Strong steps are being taken against human trafficking,” he said in a statement.
President Asif Ali Zardari has also expressed grief on the deaths of over 40 Pakistanis and stressed the need for effective and far-reaching measures to prevent human trafficking.