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 his hope for the future.
Then he remembered some of his small village in the Punjab region of Pakistan, who wished to reach Europe and wondered if they too lived in a very dark sea, thinking about their home and the people they left behind. .
“I heard about many others,” Hassan said, speaking on a borrowed phone in Malakasa, a refugee camp near Athens. Unable to swim, he said he thought he was drowning.
Then, he heard a rope – thrown from a merchant ship. He said: “I continued to do this for the rest of my life.”
Hassan was the first person to climb on Saturday, December 14, near the Greek island of Crete. Many more will follow in the two-day rescue operation that involved nine ships, including the Greek coast guard as well as commercial vessels and helicopters.
But not all of them made it.
Greek authorities have confirmed that at least five people have died and more than 200 have survived, following four separate rescue operations over the weekend, although the number of people missing remains unknown.
Three boats carrying migrants capsized between December 14 and 15, near the island of Gavdos, which is south of Crete, and another boat capsized near the Peloponnese island.
Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the bodies of five Pakistanis were found, while at least 47 Pakistanis were rescued. The Pakistani embassy in Athens said at least 35 Pakistanis are missing.
'Having respect'
Hassan's journey began about three and a half months ago when the 23-year-old left his wife and two sons behind in his village near the major industrial city of Gujrat.
The third of five brothers, he worked as a steelworker, and earned 42,000 rupees ($150) a month, if he worked 10 to 12 hours, seven days a week.
But no matter how hard or how long he worked, he found it difficult to do nothing when prices were rising.
“My electricity bill would be anywhere between 15,000 ($54) and 18,000 rupees ($64) (monthly),” he explains. And the groceries would have cost the same for my family, including my parents and two younger siblings.
Hassan often had to take out small loans at the end of the month to make ends meet and he was always worried that if something bad happened to him like illness in the family.
He said: “In Pakistan it is impossible to have respect because of this money.”
It made him do something. “Nobody risks their lives willingly like this,” he explains.
Hassan first spoke to his wife, mother and older brother to tell him to follow others to his village to try to reach Europe. His family agreed and decided to sell a small plot of land and some of Hassan's mother's jewelry to finance the trip.
He got about two million won ($7,100) to pay an “agent” who promised safe passage to Europe. The family heard about people who left but did not make it, and those who arrived safely in Italy a few days later from Pakistan. Hassan felt a mixture of nervousness and excitement.
A few weeks later, he said goodbye to his family and boarded a plane from Sialkot to Saudi Arabia. They stayed there for two days before flying to Dubai. From Dubai, he flew to Egypt and from there, he boarded his last flight to Benghazi in Libya.
'Mercilessly beaten'
In Libya, Hassan was told he would be put on a boat 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 x 6-meter (20-foot. x 20-foot) warehouse. room. Most of the men were from Pakistan. Many had been there for months.
The smugglers took Hassan's phone, passport and his bag containing several clothes, and 50,000 rupees ($180) in cash.
Hassan said that Libyan and Sudanese guards are always watching them and warning them not to make any noise.
“Every day we received a piece of bread,” he explains, adding: “The guards allowed us to rest for five minutes a day.”
He describes how anyone who complained about the lack of food or asked to use the toilet or shower was beaten with metal rods and PVC pipes.
“All we could do was look at each other or whisper a little. Anyone who made the slightest noise, the guards would hit them and beat them mercilessly,” he says.
Sometimes the men asked to go back home. But this too would be met with violence.
Then, at the beginning of December, the guards told the men that the bad weather meant that instead of being sent to Italy, they would go to Greece. He was given 30 minutes to prepare to leave the room he had been locked in for months. Their phones and passports were returned to them.
'Everyone began to pray'
Hassan, who had never seen the lake before, was afraid. “I asked to be sent back to Pakistan, but they told us, 'We are not going back.' Move forward or die,” he says.
Mr. Hassan said: “More than 80 men were crammed into a wooden boat that was not strong enough to carry less than 40 people.
The sea was treacherous. Hassan describes how the “storm and huge waves” left the men “wet and scared”.
He said: “The engines broke down and everyone started praying,” adding that they were sure they were going to die.
Then, after being at sea for 40 hours, the boat capsized and Hassan and his friends fell into the Mediterranean Sea.
“When I fell into the water, I held my breath,” he recalls, explaining how he tried to stay calm.
“When I got to the top, miraculously I was able to grab the rope that was thrown by the ship to save us.”
After dragging him to the deck, Hassan is said to have fainted. He believes it is a miracle that he survived.
'I don't have to be afraid'
What happened to Hassan is not surprising.
Gujrat, along with neighboring cities in Pakistan such as Sialkot, Jhelum and Mandi Bahauddin, are places where people are trying to reach Europe. With land routes increasingly closed, many have now turned to the dangerous sea route through Libya.
According to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 190,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe this year, of which 94 percent – more than 180,000 – took the dangerous sea route.
UNHCR statistics also show that this year, about 3,000 Pakistanis have arrived on the shores of Europe, mainly arriving in Italy and Greece. The corresponding number last year was more than 8,000, representing 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 elderly fishing trawler, capsized off the Greek island of Pylos. 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 people drowning.
Hassan is now in the Malakasa camp with the survivors of his shipwreck with others, including some of the survivors of Adriana's tragedy.
He believes that he will start working in the village to send money to his family, who he talks to once a day when he borrows a phone.
He has a message for anyone thinking of embarking on the same journey.
“After what we've been through, I'm just pleading with people not to take this route,” he says. “It's not worth the risk.”