A ‘wonder’: Pakistani survivor of a lethal Mediterranean sea passing | Migration

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

Then he recollected the others from his petite village in Pakistan’s Punjab province who had dreamed of making it to Europe and wondered if they, too, had spent their last moments in the pitch-bdeficiency sea, leanking of home and the people they had left behind.

“I’d heard about so many others,” says Hassan, speaking on a borrowed phone from Malakasa, a refugee camp cforfeit Athens. Unable to swim, he says he felt certain that he would drown.

Then, he felt the rope – thrown from a merchant navy ship. “I held onto it with my life,” he says.

Hassan was the first person pulled on board in the punctual hours of Saturday, December 14, cforfeit the Greek island of Crete. Many others would chase during the two-day get back operation that participated nine vessels, including the Greek coastdefend as well as merchant navy ships and helicchooseers.

But not everyone made it.

Greek authorities verifyed at least five deaths and more than 200 survivors, chaseing four split get back operations by the coastdefend over the weekfinish, though the total number of leave outing people remains unclear.

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

Pakistan’s foreign ministry verifyed that the bodies of five Pakistani nationals were recovered, while at least 47 Pakistanis were get backd. The Pakistani embassy in Athens shelp that at least 35 Pakistani nationals remain leave outing.

‘To live with dignity’

Hassan’s journey had begined about three and a half months earlier when the 23-year-elderly left his wife and two toddler sons in their village cforfeit the meaningful industrial city of Gujrat.

The third of five siblings, he labored on produceion sites as a steel mender, geting 42,000 rupees ($150) per month, if he labored 10 to 12 hour days, seven days per week.

But no matter how challenging or lengthy he labored, he struggled to stay afloat as prices kept rising.

“My electricity bill would be anywhere between 15,000 ($54) and 18,000 rupees ($64) [per month],” he elucidates. “And groceries would cost cforfeitly the same for my family, including my parents and two youthfuler siblings.”

Hassan normally had to get petite loans at the finish of the month fair to produce finishs greet and he always worried about what would happen if there was some comardent of aascendncy, appreciate an illness in the family.

“In Pakistan, it’s impossible to live with dignity on such getings,” he says.

It drove him to get frantic meadeclareives. “Nobody willingly hazards their life appreciate this,” he elucidates.

Hassan first spoke to his wife, mother and elderlyer brother to propose that he chase others in their village and try to accomplish Europe. His family concurd and choosed to sell a petite plot of land, alengthy with Hassan’s mother’s jewellery, to help fund the journey.

They elevated cforfeitly two million rupees ($7,100) to pay an “agent” who promised defended passage to Europe. The family had heard of people who left but never made it, but also of those who had defendedly accomplished Italy wilean fair a scant days of leaving Pakistan. Hassan felt a fuseture of trepidation and excitement.

Just a scant weeks rescheduleedr, he shelp outstandingbye to his family and boarded a fweightless 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 final fweightless to Benghazi in Libya.

‘Beaten cruelly’

In Libya, Hassan was telderly that he would be put on a boat that would get him to Italy, but instead, he was getn to a warehoparticipate where more than 100 men were restrictd to a 6-metre x 6-metre (20-foot x 20-foot) room. Most of the men were from Pakistan. Many had been there for months.

The illegal traders took Hassan’s phone, passport and backpack with a scant items of cloleang inside, and the 50,000 rupees ($180) he carried with him.

Hassan says defends from Libya and Sudan watched them at all times and cautioned them not to produce any noise.

“We getd a piece of bread daily,” he elucidates, compriseing: “The defends permited us one five-minute bathroom shatter a day.”

He depicts how anyone who protested about the deficiency of food or asked to participate the toilet or shower was beaten with steel rods and PVC pipes.

“All we were able to do was to see at each other or whisper with each other a little. Anybody making a little bit of noise, the defends would pounce and fair beat them cruelly,” he says.

Sometimes, the men would beg to be sent back home. But that, too, would be met with aggression.

Then, at the beginning of December, the defends telderly the men that horrible weather uncomardentt that instead of being sent to Italy, they would be heading for Greece. They were given 30 minutes to set to depart the room where they had been held for months. Their phones and passports were returned to them.

‘Everyone began praying’

Hassan, who had never seen the sea before, was terrified. “I begged to be sent back to Pakistan, but they telderly us, ‘There is no going back. Either go forward or die’,” he says.

More than 80 men were crammed on board a rickety wooden boat depicted to carry no more than 40 passengers, Hassan elucidates.

The sea was taccomplisherous. Hassan depicts how “stormy triumphds and huge waves” left the men “soaked and terrified”.

“The engines broke down and everyone began praying,” he says, compriseing that they were certain they were going to die.

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

“As I fell into the water, I held my breath,” he recalls, describing how he tried to remain soothe.

“When I came up, miraculously I was able to grab the rope that was thrown by the ship to save us.”

When he was pulled onto the deck, Hassan says he collapsed. He apshows it is a wonder that he persistd.

‘Not worth the hazard’

Hassan’s experience is, grieffilledy, not atypical.

Gujrat, alengthy with neighbouring cities in Pakistan such as Sialkot, Jhelum and Mandi Bahauddin, is a hub for people trying to accomplish Europe. With land routes increasingly shutd off, many now turn to the hazardy sea route via Libya.

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

UNHCR figures also show that this year, cforfeitly 3,000 Pakistanis have accomplished European shores, mostly arriving in Italy and Greece. The correplying figure last year was fair over 8,000, shotriumphg a reduce of at least 62 percent.

In one of the deadliest shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, more than 700 people including shut to 300 Pakistanis, died when the Adriana, an ageing fishing trawler, capsized cforfeit 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 by drowning.

Now Hassan is in the Malakasa camp with survivors from his shipwreck and others, including some of those who persistd the Adriana calamity.

He is pimpolitently certain that he will be able to begin doing some comardent of labor in the camp so that he can sfinish money home to his family, who he speaks to once a day when he is able to borrow a phone.

He has a message for anyone contemplating embarking on the same journey.

“After what we have teachd, I only implore people to never, ever get this route,” he says. “It is not worth the hazard.”