More than 40 Pakistanis are feared to have drowned in the capsizing of a boat off West Africa's Atlantic coastline, which has emerged as a primary point of departure for irregular refugees aiming to reach Europe.
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed grief over the deaths and stressed the need for strict measures to curb human trafficking.
Zardari's comments in a statement late Thursday came after a Spain-based migrant rights group, Walking Borders, said 50 people had died on their way to the Canary Islands and that 44 of them were Pakistanis. The group said the migrants began their journey on January 2.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also expressed his sorrow over the deaths.
Pakistan said its embassy in Morocco had informed that a boat carrying 80 passengers, including some Pakistanis, had set off from Mauritania and capsized near Dakhla, a Moroccan-controlled port city in the disputed Western Sahara.
Almost all the Pakistanis on the boat were from cities in the eastern Punjab province. Relatives were gathering at the homes of the victims as some of the survivors were now in contact with their families, officials say.
In Daska, a city in the Punjab, the family of two men said they had to sell property to arrange millions of rupees to pay human traffickers to send Arslan Ahmed and Mohammad Arfan to Europe in search of good jobs.
Ahmed's mother said that although she had heard from the relatives of some of the survivors that her son was alive, she was still unable to contact him. Razia Bibi, Arfan's mother, urged authorities to trace her son and bring him back.
Deadliest in the world
Millions of people migrate to Europe each year, the vast majority using legal and regular means.
Fewer than 240,000 people crossed borders into the continent without papers last year, according to the European Union’s border agency Frontex.
As authorities have worked to prevent migration and smuggling from countries in the Mediterranean Sea, more dangerous routes have become increasingly used.
Frontex reported more than 50,000 migrants made the journey from northwest Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands in 2024, including 178 Pakistanis.
Walking Borders said in a report last week that 9,757 people had died or gone missing trying to cross to the islands, calling the route “the deadliest in the world.”
The islands are roughly 105 kilometres from the closest point in Africa, but to avoid security forces, many asylum seekers attempt longer journeys that can take days or weeks. Last year, the majority departed from Mauritania, which is at least 762 kilometres from the closest Canary Island, El Hierro.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said several survivors, including Pakistanis, are staying in a camp near Dakhla. Pakistan’s Embassy in Morocco is in touch with local authorities and officials have gone to Dakhla to help survivors, according to a ministry statement.
The ministry did not say how many Pakistanis had died. Officials at the ministry were not immediately available for comment on Friday.
