Islamabad, Jan 16 (PTI) Pakistan on Thursday said that a boat carrying 80 migrants attempting to reach Spain capsized near Morocco, with over 40 Pakistanis reportedly among the dead.
Migrant rights group Walking Borders said as many as 50 migrants may have drowned. Moroccan authorities rescued 36 people a day earlier from a boat that had left Mauritania on January 2 with 86 migrants, including 66 Pakistanis.
Forty-four of those presumed to have drowned were from Pakistan, Walking Borders CEO Helena Maleno said on X.
“They spent 13 days of anguish on the crossing without anyone coming to rescue them,” she said.
The Pakistan Foreign Office said in a statement that its embassy in Morocco was in touch with the local authorities. “Our Embassy in Rabat (Morocco) has informed us that a boat carrying 80 passengers, including several Pakistani nationals, setting off from Mauritania, has capsized near the Moroccan port of Dakhla. Several survivors, including Pakistanis, are lodged in a camp near Dakhla,” it said.
It added that a team from the embassy has been dispatched to Dakhla to facilitate the Pakistani nationals and provide necessary assistance while the Crisis Management Unit in the Foreign Ministry has been activated.
Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar instructed the relevant government agencies to extend all possible facilitation to the affected Pakistanis.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sought a report on the incident from authorities and said that strict action would be taken against those involved in the heinous act of human trafficking. PTI SH ZH ZH
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