A boat carrying 80 migrants, including over 40 Pakistanis, attempting to reach Spain capsized near Morocco. According to Migrant rights group Walking Borders, at least 50 migrants may have drowned. The Pakistani embassy in Morocco is in touch with the local authorities, the Pakistani Foreign Office said in a statement.
Pakistan's Foreign Office reacts
The statement reads, "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."
In a post on X, Walking Borders CEO Helena Maleno said that forty-four of those drowned are presumed to be belonging to Pakistan.
She added, "They spent 13 days of anguish on the crossing without anyone coming to rescue them."
Moreover, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said that the Crisis Management Unit in the Foreign Ministry has been activated and a team from the embassy has been dispatched to Dakhla to facilitate the Pakistani nationals and provide necessary assistance.
Shehbaz Sharif seeks report on the incident
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has sought a report on the incident from authorities, saying that strict action would be taken against those involved in the heinous act of human trafficking. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar instructed the relevant government agencies to extend all possible facilitation to the affected Pakistanis.
A day earlier, the Moroccan authorities rescued 36 people from a boat that had left Mauritania on January 2 with 86 migrants, including 66 Pakistanis.
(With AP inputs)
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