Islamabad, Pakistan – When Hassan Ali fell into the icy waters of the Mediterranean Sea, he considered his two youngsters – of their smiles, their hugs and his hopes for his or her future.
Then he remembered the others from his small village in Pakistan’s Punjab province who had dreamed of creating it to Europe and questioned in the event that they, too, had spent their final moments within the pitch-black sea, pondering of dwelling and the folks they’d left behind.
“I’d heard about so many others,” says Hassan, talking on a borrowed cellphone from Malakasa, a refugee camp close to Athens. Unable to swim, he says he felt sure that he would drown.
Then, he felt the rope – thrown from a service provider navy ship. “I held onto it with my life,” he says.
Hassan was the primary individual pulled on board within the early hours of Saturday, December 14, close to the Greek island of Crete. Many others would comply with in the course of the two-day rescue operation that concerned 9 vessels, together with the Greek coastguard in addition to service provider navy ships and helicopters.
However not everybody made it.
Greek authorities confirmed at the least 5 deaths and greater than 200 survivors, following 4 separate rescue operations by the coastguard over the weekend, although the whole variety of lacking folks stays unclear.
Three boats carrying migrants capsized between December 14 and 15, close to the island of Gavdos, which is additional south of Crete, and one other boat capsized close to the Peloponnese peninsula.
Pakistan’s overseas ministry confirmed that the our bodies of 5 Pakistani nationals had been recovered, whereas at the least 47 Pakistanis had been rescued. The Pakistani embassy in Athens mentioned that at the least 35 Pakistani nationals stay lacking.
‘To dwell with dignity’
Hassan’s journey had began about three and a half months earlier when the 23-year-old left his spouse and two toddler sons of their village close to the most important industrial metropolis of Gujrat.
The third of 5 siblings, he labored on building websites as a metal fixer, incomes 42,000 rupees ($150) per 30 days, if he labored 10 to 12 hour days, seven days per week.
However irrespective of how laborious or lengthy he labored, he struggled to remain afloat as costs stored rising.
“My electrical energy invoice could be wherever between 15,000 ($54) and 18,000 rupees ($64) [per month],” he explains. “And groceries would value practically the identical for my household, together with my dad and mom and two youthful siblings.”
Hassan usually needed to take small loans on the finish of the month simply to make ends meet and he at all times anxious about what would occur if there was some sort of emergency, like an sickness within the household.
“In Pakistan, it’s inconceivable to dwell with dignity on such earnings,” he says.
It drove him to take determined measures. “No one willingly dangers their life like this,” he explains.
Hassan first spoke to his spouse, mom and older brother to counsel that he comply with others of their village and try to achieve Europe. His household agreed and determined to promote a small plot of land, together with Hassan’s mom’s jewelry, to assist fund the journey.
They raised practically two million rupees ($7,100) to pay an “agent” who promised protected passage to Europe. The household had heard of people that left however by no means made it, but additionally of those that had safely reached Italy inside only a few days of leaving Pakistan. Hassan felt a combination of trepidation and pleasure.
Just some weeks later, he mentioned goodbye to his household and boarded a flight from Sialkot to Saudi Arabia. He spent two days there earlier than flying to Dubai. From Dubai, he flew to Egypt and from there, he took his last flight to Benghazi in Libya.
‘Crushed ruthlessly’
In Libya, Hassan was advised that he could be placed on a ship that may take him to Italy, however as an alternative, he was taken to a warehouse the place greater than 100 males had been confined to a 6-metre x 6-metre (20-foot x 20-foot) room. A lot of the males had been from Pakistan. Many had been there for months.
The smugglers took Hassan’s cellphone, passport and backpack with a number of objects of clothes inside, and the 50,000 rupees ($180) he carried with him.
Hassan says guards from Libya and Sudan watched them always and warned them to not make any noise.
“We acquired a chunk of bread every day,” he explains, including: “The guards allowed us one five-minute lavatory break a day.”
He describes how anybody who complained in regards to the lack of meals or requested to make use of the bathroom or bathe was crushed with metal rods and PVC pipes.
“All we had been capable of do was to take a look at one another or whisper with one another just a little. Anyone making just a little little bit of noise, the guards would pounce and simply beat them ruthlessly,” he says.
Generally, the lads would beg to be despatched again dwelling. However that, too, could be met with violence.
Then, in the beginning of December, the guards advised the lads that dangerous climate meant that as an alternative of being despatched to Italy, they might be heading for Greece. They got half-hour to organize to go away the room the place they’d been held for months. Their telephones and passports had been returned to them.
‘Everybody started praying’
Hassan, who had by no means seen the ocean earlier than, was terrified. “I begged to be despatched again to Pakistan, however they advised us, ‘There isn’t any going again. Both go ahead or die’,” he says.
Greater than 80 males had been crammed on board a rickety picket boat designed to hold not more than 40 passengers, Hassan explains.
The ocean was treacherous. Hassan describes how “stormy winds and big waves” left the lads “soaked and terrified”.
“The engines broke down and everybody started praying,” he says, including that they had been sure they had been 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 remembers, describing how he tried to stay calm.
“After I got here up, miraculously I used to be capable of seize the rope that was thrown by the ship to save lots of us.”
When he was pulled onto the deck, Hassan says he collapsed. He believes it’s a miracle that he survived.
‘Not definitely worth the danger’
Hassan’s expertise is, sadly, commonplace.
Gujrat, together with neighbouring cities in Pakistan comparable to Sialkot, Jhelum and Mandi Bahauddin, is a hub for folks attempting to achieve Europe. With land routes more and more closed off, many now flip to the damaging sea route by way of Libya.
In keeping with figures from the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), greater than 190,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Europe this yr, of whom 94 % – greater than 180,000 – took the precarious sea route.
UNHCR figures additionally present that this yr, practically 3,000 Pakistanis have reached European shores, principally arriving in Italy and Greece. The corresponding determine final yr was simply over 8,000, displaying a lower of at the least 62 %.
In one of many deadliest shipwrecks within the Mediterranean, greater than 700 folks together with near 300 Pakistanis, died when the Adriana, an ageing fishing trawler, capsized close to the Greek island of Pylos in June 2023.
In keeping with the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM), 2023 was the deadliest yr within the Mediterranean since 2016, with greater than 3,100 deaths by drowning.
Now Hassan is within the Malakasa camp with survivors from his shipwreck and others, together with a few of those that survived the Adriana catastrophe.
He’s cautiously hopeful that he’ll be capable to begin doing a little sort of work within the camp in order that he can ship cash dwelling to his household, who he speaks to as soon as a day when he is ready to borrow a cellphone.
He has a message for anybody considering embarking on the identical journey.
“After what now we have skilled, I solely implore folks to by no means, ever take this route,” he says. “It isn’t definitely worth the danger.”
