High-level team to depart for Morocco to investigate boat tragedy

ISLAMABAD: A high-level government team will be dispatched to Morocco today (Saturday) to investigate the loss of at least 44 Pakistani lives in the mig­rant boat tragedy off the Morocco coast.

As per the Foreign Office spokesperson, a boat carrying 80 passengers, including 65 Pakistani nationals, setting off from Mauritania, has capsized near the Moroccan port of Dakhla.

As per media reports, 44 Pakistanis on board the ship either drowned or died after alleged torture, while 10 bodies have been recovered.

The family members of Pakistani nationals who died in the incident claimed that the boat carrying migrants remained halted in the middle of the ocean for days and Pakistanis in particular were stabbed to death.

International media reported that at least 19 survived and the bodies recovered from the Atlantic Ocean are currently in Dakhla, a town near the coast of Morocco.

As the speculation raised regarding the incident, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has decided to send an official team to Moro­cco comprising Federal Investi­gation Age­ncy (FIA) Addi­tional Dire­ctor General (north) Mun­eer Maarth, Additional Secretary Int­erior Salman Chau­dhary and representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Bureau (IB).

According to the sources, the team will visit the Moroccan cities of Rabat and Dakhla to meet the survivors of the incident to uncover the full details including allegations of torture and inhumane treatment by human smugglers.

Meanwhile, FIA has registered three cases against suspects involved in sending the intending immigrants abroad illegally.

The cases have been lodged against the human traffickers of Gujrat and Sialkot districts with FIA crime circles in Gujranwala and Gujrat.

The majority of victims belong to the Sialkot, Gujrat, and Mandi Bahauddin districts of the region.