A ‘miracle’: Pakistani survivor of a deadly Mediterranean crossing | Migration

Islamabad, Pakistan – When Hassan Ali fell into the icy waters of the Mediterranean Sea, he thought of his two children: their smiles, their hugs and their hopes for their future.

Then he remembered the others in his small village in the Punjab province of Pakistan who had dreamed of reaching Europe and wondered if they, too, had spent their last moments in the pitch-black sea, thinking of home and the memories. people they had left behind. .

“I had heard about many others,” says Hassan, speaking on a borrowed phone from Malakasa, a refugee camp near Athens. Unable to swim, he says he was sure he would drown.

Then, he felt the rope, thrown from a merchant marine ship. “I held onto it for dear life,” he says.

Hassan was the first person to board in the early hours of Saturday, December 14, near the Greek island of Crete. Many others would follow during the two-day rescue operation involving nine vessels, including the Greek coastguard as well as merchant navy ships and helicopters.

But not everyone made it.

Greek authorities confirmed at least five deaths and more than 200 survivors, following four separate rescue operations carried out by the coast guard over the weekend, although the total number of people missing remains unclear.

Three boats carrying migrants capsized between December 14 and 15 near the island of Gavdos, further south in Crete, and another boat capsized near the Peloponnese peninsula.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the bodies of five Pakistani nationals were recovered, while at least 47 Pakistanis were rescued. Pakistan’s embassy in Athens said at least 35 Pakistani citizens remain missing.

‘Live with dignity’

Hassan’s journey had begun about three and a half months earlier, when the 23-year-old left his wife and two young children in their village near the major industrial city of Gujrat.

The third of five brothers, he worked on construction sites as a steel repairman, earning 42,000 rupees ($150) a month, if he worked 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

But no matter how hard or how much he worked, he struggled to stay afloat as prices continued to rise.

“My electricity bill would range between 15,000 ($54) and 18,000 rupees ($64) (per month),” he explains. “And food would cost almost the same for my family, including my parents and my two younger brothers.”

Hassan often had to take out small loans at the end of the month just to make ends meet and was always worried about what would happen if some kind of emergency arose, such as an illness in the family.

“In Pakistan, it is impossible to live with dignity on that income,” he says.

It led him to take desperate measures. “No one willingly risks their life like that,” he explains.

Hassan first spoke to his wife, mother and older brother to suggest that he follow others in their village and try to reach Europe. His family agreed and decided to sell a small piece of land, along with Hassan’s mother’s jewelry, to help finance the trip.

They raised nearly two million rupees ($7,100) to pay an “agent” who promised safe passage to Europe. The family had heard of people who left but never made it, but also of those who had arrived safely in Italy a few days after leaving Pakistan. Hassan felt a mixture of fear and excitement.

A few weeks later, he said goodbye to his family and boarded a flight from Sialkot to Saudi Arabia. He spent two days there before flying to Dubai. From Dubai he flew to Egypt and from there he took his last flight to Benghazi in Libya.

‘Beat mercilessly’

In Libya, Hassan was told he would be put on a ship that would take him to Italy, but instead he was taken to a warehouse where more than 100 men were confined to a 6-meter by 6-meter (20-foot) boat. x 20 feet) of room. Most of the men were from Pakistan. Many had been there for months.

The smugglers took Hassan’s phone, passport and backpack with some clothes inside, and the 50,000 rupees ($180) he had with him.

Hassan says guards from Libya and Sudan watched them at all times and warned them not to make any noise.

“We received a piece of bread daily,” he explains, adding: “The guards allowed us a five-minute break a day to go to the bathroom.”

He describes how anyone who complained about the lack of food or asked to go to the bathroom or shower was beaten with steel bars and PVC pipes.

“The only thing we could do was look at each other or whisper a little. Anyone who made a little noise, the guards would pounce on him and beat him mercilessly,” he says.

Sometimes the men begged to be sent home. But that would also be responded to with violence.

Then, in early December, guards told the men that bad weather meant that instead of being sent to Italy, they would head to Greece. They were given 30 minutes to prepare to leave the room where they had been held for months. They returned their phones and passports.

‘Everyone started praying’

Hassan, who had never seen the sea before, was terrified. “I begged to be sent back to Pakistan, but they told us: ‘There is no turning back. You either keep going or you die,’” he says.

More than 80 men were crammed aboard a rickety wooden boat designed to carry no more than 40 passengers, Hassan explains.

The sea was treacherous. Hassan describes how “stormy winds and huge waves” left the men “soaked and terrified.”

“The engines broke down and everyone started praying,” he says, adding that they were sure they were going to die.

Then, after 40 hours at sea, the boat capsized and Hassan and the others plunged into the Mediterranean.

“When I fell into the water, I held my breath,” he recalls, describing how he tried to stay calm.

“When I got on, miraculously I was able to grab the rope that the ship threw to save us.”

When they brought him on deck, Hassan says he collapsed. He believes it is a miracle that he survived.

“It’s not worth the risk”

Unfortunately, Hassan’s experience is not unusual.

Gujrat, along with neighboring Pakistani cities such as Sialkot, Jhelum and Mandi Bahauddin, is a hub for people trying to reach Europe. With land routes increasingly closed, many are now turning to the dangerous sea route through Libya.

According to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 190,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Europe this year, of which 94 percent – more than 180,000 – took the precarious sea route.

UNHCR figures also show that this year, almost 3,000 Pakistanis have arrived on European shores, mostly in Italy and Greece. Last year’s corresponding figure was just over 8,000, a decrease of at least 62 percent.

In one of the deadliest shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, more than 700 people, including nearly 300 Pakistanis, died when the Adriana, an old fishing trawler, capsized near the Greek island of Pylos in June 2023.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2023 was the deadliest year in the Mediterranean since 2016, with more than 3,100 deaths due to drowning.

Hassan is now in the Malakasa camp with the survivors of his shipwreck and others, including some of those who survived the Adriana disaster.

He is cautiously hopeful that he can start doing some kind of work in the camp so he can send money to his family, who he talks to once a day when he can borrow a phone.

He has a message for anyone thinking about taking the same journey.

“After what we’ve experienced, I just implore people to never, ever take this path,” he says. “It’s not worth the risk.”