44 Pakistanis among 50 killed as migrant boat sinks off Morocco

MADRID: At least 50 migrants may have drowned trying to reach Spain by boat from West Africa, migrant rights group Walking Borders said on Thursday.  Moroccan authorities on Wednesday rescued 36 people from a boat that left Mauritania on January 2, the Madrid-Navarre-based group said, carrying 86 migrants, including 66 Pakistanis. The rights group said it alerted the authorities of all participating countries to the missing ship six days ago. The ship left for Spain on January 2, relatives of the drowned Pakistani migrants said. According to them, the traffickers anchored the ship in the sea and demanded more money from them. Alarm Phone, an NGO that provides a hotline for migrants lost at sea, said it alerted Spain’s maritime rescue service on January 12. The service said it had no information about the ship. Citing a post by Walking Borders on the X social media platform, the regional leader of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, expressed regret for the victims and called on 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 executive director Helena Maleno told X that 44 of those who drowned were from Pakistan. “They spent 13 days of suffering at the crossing without anyone coming to save them,” she said. According to Walking Borders, a record 10,457 migrants died trying to reach Spain in 2024, or 30 people a day, with the majority trying to cross the Atlantic route from West African countries such as Mauritania and Senegal to the Canary Islands.