“It was very dangerous. It was four days and three nights in boat. It was very dangerous because I put my life at risk. ” When Imam (fictional name) left Bangladesh to Europe, I didn’t know that I would travel to the Canary Islands. Nor would it cross the most fatal immigration route in the world. In July 2024 he left his country, but it was not until November 29 of that year when he arrived in Gran Canaria in a Cayuco. From the surroundings of the reception camp in which he lives, he has shyness the reasons that pushed him out of Daca, his hometown: “You know that everything is crazy and there is no job. It is not safe to stay anywhere. For that reason I left. ”
Iman is 24 years old and kept studying until he left Bangladesh. His first stop was Nuakchot. It was already in the Mauritan city where he learned that he would enter Europe on the Canary Islands. “I went to Mauritania by plane and from Mauritania to Spain in Barca,” he recalls. In the Cayuco, another “five or six people” of Bangladesh were traveling. The others were from Senegal, Ghana, and other African countries. “There was no food or anything for four days. It was very risky, ”he insists.
The trip from Daca to Gran Canaria cost him between 3,000 and 4,000 euros in total. “To get out of my country you don’t give you visa to come to Europe, therefore you must choose an illegal route. If I had a visa I would have come here by plane, ”he emphasizes. Its purpose is not to stay on the island, but to travel to Madrid, where it has some acquaintances. “I hope that my life has no problems. I hope to live well here, ”he wants.
Although most of the 46,000 migrants who were rescued in the islands in 2024 comes from different African countries, the number of Asians who have crossed the Atlantic in pateras and Cayucos grew last year. According to the latest data published by Frontex, the European Border Agency, between January and November last year, survived the Route 221 people of Pakistan, 54 of Bangladesh, 13 of Syria, 12 of Afghanistan and eight from Yemen.
Until now, these nationalities were more frequent in the Mediterranean. In 2023, 80% of the Pakistani who arrived in the European Union did it for Italy, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IIM). However, expert sources consulted by this wording explain that the border control policies of the Italian government have redirected migratory flows. The greatest surveillance in European borders joins the political instability of countries of origin, to the impact of climate change and violence.
Pakistani in the CIE
Most Asian people who have arrived in the Canary Islands are from Pakistan. At least 16 of them, as this newspaper has been confirmed, they have ended at the Foreigner Internment Center (CIE) of Barranco Seco, in Gran Canaria, after a trip of more than 12,000 kilometers. In November 12 Pakistani remained in this center. Sources close to CIE said in December that ten of them were deported from Madrid to Pakistan on an exclusive flight. The latest figures obtained by this newspaper indicate that on December 23, 2024 there were six Pakistani in Barranco Seco.
Sources from the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands have explained to this newspaper that there is a framework agreement between the European Union (EU) and Pakistan for the deportation of migrants from this country. The document entered into force in 2010 and also contemplates the return of “the citizens of other countries who have been in transit by Pakistan before returning to the EU.”
Route victims
The Pakistani have also starred in one of the worst shipwrecks of 2025 on the Canarian route. On January 17, 50 people died in a Cayuco that caught on the coast of the Western Sahara. The boat left Mauritania on January 2 with 86 migrants on board. Among them there were 66 people from Pakistan, but they were only localized 22 of them. After 13 days of “distressing journey,” the tragedy occurred.
Of the 44 Pakistani who lost their lives trying to get to the Canary Islands, at least twelve were from the city of Gujrat, in the north of the country. The “extreme climatic vulnerability facing Pakistan,” as Amnesty International has reported, has put the food security of its population at risk, as well as has influenced the increase in poverty. The same happens in Bangladesh. According to a report published in 2021 by the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR), natural disasters have pushed forced displacements to more than 4.4 million people.
Survivors of the shipwreck, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan, remained in a camp near Dakhla. There was a team from the Pakistani embassy in Rabat to attend migrants and be able to keep families informed. On its official website, the Ministry has also reported the identity of the survivors located in the Western Sahara.
Ahmed Sardar, spokesman for Pak Federation Spain, the organization that groups the entities of the Pakistani community, ensures that families are not only worried about knowing if their parents and brothers died in that Cayuco. They are also on alert if their loved ones are waiting to get on one and cross the Atlantic route.
“People who come have no idea what will go through this. If not, life would not be played, ”says Sardar, who regrets that Pakistani migrants leave the country deceived with” false promises of the mafias. ” “They promise you a fast, safe and legal route. They promise you that when you arrive in Europe you will get papers and work. Young people see there the opportunity to change their lives, but this trip can be deadly, ”he warns.
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