A ‘miracle’: Pakistani survivor of a deadly Mediterranean sea crossing

A harrowing journey costing $7,000 and the lives of many of his compatriots was ‘not worth the risk’, Hassan Ali says. ‘Never, ever take this route.’

Islamabad, 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 remembered the others from his small 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-black sea, thinking 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 near 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 early hours of Saturday, December 14, near the Greek island of Crete. Many others would follow during the two-day rescue operation that involved nine vessels, including the Greek coastguard as well as merchant navy ships and helicopters.