A devastating shipwreck off the coast of Spain’s Canary Islands has left as many as 50 migrants dead, many of whom were Pakistani nationals, according to the migrant rights group Walking Borders. The group confirmed the incident on Thursday, describing it as another tragic chapter in the perilous journey of migrants attempting to cross from West Africa to Spain.
The disaster involved a boat that left Mauritania on January 2, carrying 86 passengers, including 66 Pakistanis. Moroccan authorities managed to rescue 36 individuals on Wednesday, but it is feared that 44 others have drowned, with Walking Borders CEO Helena Maleno reporting that the majority of the missing are from Pakistan.
The migrants endured a harrowing 13 days at sea without any rescue intervention, said Maleno, expressing her shock and sorrow on social media. Despite repeated warnings from NGOs about the boat’s distress, Spain’s maritime rescue service was only notified about the situation on January 10, after which air searches were conducted, but with no success.
According to Walking Borders, the NGO had raised the alarm six days earlier, alerting authorities from all relevant countries. Alarm Phone, another NGO dedicated to assisting migrants at sea, also informed Spain’s rescue service on January 12 about the boat in trouble.
The Canary Islands’ regional leader, Fernando Clavijo, expressed deep sadness over the incident and called for urgent action to prevent further tragedies. “The Atlantic cannot continue to be the graveyard of Africa,” Clavijo said, urging Spain and Europe to confront this ongoing humanitarian crisis.
In 2024 alone, a record 10,457 migrants—an average of 30 per day—lost their lives attempting to reach Spain, many of them on the dangerous Atlantic route from West African countries like Mauritania and Senegal.