MADRID: Another boat carrying 86 migrants, including 66 Pakistanis, capsized off near Spain’s coast in an attempt to reach the European country from West Africa, Reuters reported on Thursday.
According to the migrant rights group Walking Borders, as many as 50 migrants feared drowned as Moroccan authorities on Wednesday rescued 36 people from a boat that departed from Mauritania on January 2, 2025.
The migrants were attempting to make the journey across the Atlantic to the Canary Islands.
The Madrid-based 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 Jan. 12. The service said it did not have any information about the boat.
In a post on X, Walking Borders CEO Helena Maleno said 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.
