Senegal migrants risk Canary Islands and Central America crossings for a new life

As file numbers of younger Africans danger their lives making an attempt to succeed in the Canary Islands, Spain’s prime minister begins disaster talks with Senegal, Mauritania and The Gambia to deal with migration.

However this may come as little consolation to Amina.

“I came upon that my son had died on social media,” she tells the BBC from her dwelling close to Senegal’s capital.

“We used to speak on a regular basis and he informed me he wished to go to Morocco,” the 50-year-old says.

“He by no means talked about he was planning to take a ship.”

She final heard from her son, Yankhoba, in January. A soul-crushing, six-month seek for the devoted 33-year-old tailor proved fruitless.

Then, in early August, fishermen found his physique on the opposite facet of the Atlantic Ocean, about 18km (11 miles) off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

At the least 14 decomposing our bodies had been on that small, picket boat, say native police. Cell phones and private paperwork discovered alongside them indicated that the majority had been from Senegal, Mauritania and Mali.

Among the many objects on board was Yankhoba’s id card.

Dominican authorities additionally reported the presence of 12 packages containing medication.

Evaluation is being carried out to find out the time and reason for the deaths, though it’s presumed that the passengers had been making an attempt to succeed in the Canary Islands and had received misplaced. Their boat was typical of the picket fishing boats typically used to move unlawful migrants from West Africa in direction of Europe.

Yankhoba was his mom’s first youngster and solely son. It’s a place which comes with a substantial amount of duty in Senegalese society.

The younger tailor is survived by his spouse and two younger youngsters, together with one he didn’t dwell lengthy sufficient to see.

Earlier than Amina learnt of her son’s loss of life, she appealed for assist from lacking particular person pages on Fb and requested social media influencers with massive followings to focus on his case.

“I held onto the assumption that Yankhoba might need been held in a jail someplace in Morocco or perhaps even in Tunisia,” she says, her voice breaking.

Younger West African migrants making an attempt to succeed in Europe are more and more selecting the Canary Islands route over the Mediterranean various.

Regardless of the hazards, it includes only one step, slightly than needing to cross each the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean.

Final yr alone the Atlantic route noticed a 161% enhance in comparison with the earlier yr, says the European Union border company, Frontex.

Spain is among the European nations that receives essentially the most migrants.

As for the folks leaving Senegal, a rising variety of them are middle-class staff in a position to afford the dearer journey to the US as an alternative of Europe.

That’s what Fallou did.

Regardless of operating a profitable sheep and fowl farm in Dakar for nearly a decade, he was struggling.

“I felt caught. On high of operating my enterprise, I used to be additionally working in a manufacturing facility, however I struggled to make ends meet,” he remembers.

So on the age of 30, he offered all the pieces he owned and purchased a one-way aircraft ticket to Nicaragua in Central America. From there, he would try the overland journey to the US.

Fallou was inspired to go away by his older brother, already based mostly within the US, and by numerous photos and movies of Senegalese folks on TikTok sharing their trek by way of Central America.

“My mom didn’t need me to go, however I used to be able to face loss of life,” he says.

Fallou travelled for 16 days, passing by way of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, with the assistance of smugglers. In whole he spent greater than $10,000 (£7,600) on the journey.

In contrast, poorer migrants who take the boat from Senegal to the Canary Islands sometimes pay smugglers round $450.

Fallou says that his sacrifice got here with its share of horrors.

“A number of folks died earlier than my eyes,” he says.

“However I noticed some girls who saved going, even with their youngsters on their backs, and I assumed: ‘I’ve to remain robust.’”

After being held in a US detention camp for a couple of days, Fallou was ultimately given depart to stay as an asylum seeker. He has since been reunited along with his brother and now works as a mechanic.

Fallou was fortunate, however many African migrants to the US usually are not.

Final September, greater than 140 Senegalese folks had been deported again dwelling after crossing the Mexico-US border.

Human rights teams and diaspora communities who help the brand new arrivals report that shelters are sometimes overwhelmed with such circumstances.

Some migrants haven’t any choice however to sleep on the road. Others could also be allowed to remain quickly in mosques.

Regardless of West Africans’ rising curiosity in various migration routes, it’s nonetheless the case that the majority African migrants try to succeed in Europe by way of the Mediterranean Sea.

During the last decade, the UN’s migration physique (IOM) says more than 28,000 migrants have drowned in that one body of water alone.

“Persons are leaving [West Africa] as a result of they’re confronted with an explosive cocktail of safety, institutional, dietary, sanitary, post-Covid and environmental issues,” says immigration professional Aly Tandian.

The variety of folks leaving Senegal particularly is rising, regardless of being a comparatively peaceable nation with a brand new president who’s promising to create jobs for younger folks.

For the reason that new authorities was elected in March, it has succeeded in decreasing the value of some primary requirements, together with oil, bread and rice – due to this fact easing the cost-of-living squeeze.

However it’s not sufficient.

“All of us thought that the hope raised by the change of regime would halt the resurgence of those migratory flows, however sadly this has not been the case,” says Boubacar Sèye, head of the non-government organisation, Horizon With out Borders.

“Despair and doubt have permeated our sociological surroundings, to the purpose the place folks now not consider that their future will be fulfilled right here,” he provides.

Mr Sèye has written a proper letter to the Senegalese authorities, pleading for an investigation into what occurred to the boat discovered off the Dominican Republic.

He says stories present “there’s a legal economic system surrounding these irregular migrations. Trafficking in medication, arms, human beings and in addition organs”.

In July, after 89 bodies were found in a boat off the Mauritanian coast, Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko made a public plea to younger folks to not take the perilous Atlantic path to Europe.

“The way forward for the world lies in Africa, and also you, younger folks want to pay attention to that,” he mentioned.

But, for the massive variety of younger Africans nonetheless risking their lives to succeed in Europe and the US, that future is anyplace however at dwelling.