Islamabad:
The survivors of the tragedy of the Moroccan boat told a heartbreaking story of “inhuman treatment” which was explained to them by human smugglers, during the interrogation of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) upon arrival at the airport of Islamabad, officials announced on Friday.
On Friday, seven other survivors returned home, increasing the total number of Morocco deportees to 14, they said. Upon their arrival, they were placed in the FIA care for interrogation. Some repatriated were injured, they added.
The tragic incident occurred on January 16, when a boat, transporting irregular migrants from Mauritania to Spain, capsized the Moroccan coast, killing 46 people. The boat, which left Mauritania on January 2, had 86 people on board – 66 of them being the Pakistani nationals.
Moroccan authorities said the accident occurred at sea off the coast of Dakhla and saved 36 survivors. Last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that 22 Pakistani nationals were among the survivors and that they would be repatriated to Pakistan by lots.
Seven Pakistan reached Pakistan this week, while another batch of seven survivors, Mehtab, Muhammad Khaliq, Gul Shamir, Waseem, Ali Hassan, Bilawal Iqbal and Umar Farooq, arrived on Friday. During the interrogation, they talked about torture by human smugglers.
FIA officials said the people back belonged to Gujarat, Sheikhupura, Siackot, Mandi Bahauddin, Narowal and Rawalpindi from Punjab. They added that these people had the botched attempt to go to Spain illegally via Dubai and Senegal.
Based on the information gleaned from returnees, the officials said, they paid RS2.2 to 3.5 million each to the agents – which belonged to different parts of Punjab for having traveled to Spain. Initially, they were sent to Dubai then to Ethiopia and Senegal on Visa. From Senegal, they were sent to Spain by sea.
“After finishing half of the trip by plane, they were taken to Senegal, from where they were given to human smugglers to travel in front of Mauritania,” said an official. He added that the smugglers began torture them from the third day of their trip to a small boat.
According to the official, the victims endured hunger and thirst. They revealed that smugglers would throw away the sick passengers over board. The passengers said that on the last day, when the boat flowed, the conditions were so worse as they were to drink sea water.
The FIA said that the reversing passengers were given to the FIA zone team concerned for a more in -depth investigation to break the human smuggling networks operating in Pakistan. Based on the last interrogation, a facilitator, Abdul Ghaffar, had been arrested by the FIA.
