Senegalese migrants risk their lives to travel across the Canary Islands and Central America in search of a new life

Spain’s prime minister has begun crisis talks with Senegal, Mauritania and Gambia to resolve the migrant crisis as record numbers of young Africans risk their lives trying to reach the Canary Islands.

But this was of little comfort to Amina.

“I learned on social media that my son had died,” she told the BBC at her home near the Senegalese capital.

“We often talked and he told me he wanted to go to Morocco,” the 50-year-old said.

“He never mentioned he was planning on taking a boat.”

She last heard from her son Jankoba in January. After six months of arduous searching, the 33-year-old tailor finally tracked her down, but found nothing.

His body was then found by fishermen on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in early August, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

Local police said there were at least 14 decomposing bodies on the small wooden boat. Mobile phones and personal documents found next to the bodies showed that most of them were from Senegal, Mauritania and Mali.

Among the items on board was Jankoba’s ID card.

Dominican authorities also reported finding 12 packages containing drugs.

The time and cause of death are currently being analyzed, but it is speculated that the passengers were trying to reach the Canary Islands but got lost. Their boat was a typical wooden fishing boat, often used to transport illegal immigrants from West Africa to Europe.

Yankoba is his mother’s first child and only son, a position that carries great responsibility in Senegalese society.

The young tailor left behind his wife and two children, one of whom he did not live to see.

Before learning of her son’s death, Amina sought help on a missing persons page on Facebook and asked social media influencers with large followings to draw attention to her son’s case.

“I still believe that Jankoba is probably being held in a prison in Morocco or Tunisia,” she said, her voice choking with sobs.

Young West African migrants trying to reach Europe are increasingly choosing the Canary Islands route rather than the Mediterranean route.

Although dangerous, it only takes one step, rather than crossing the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea.

Last year alone, passenger traffic on the Atlantic route increased by 161% compared with the year before, according to Frontex, the EU’s border management agency.

Spain is one of the countries in Europe that receives the most immigrants.

As for those leaving Senegal, a growing number of them are middle-class workers who can afford the more expensive journey to the United States rather than Europe.

That’s exactly what Fallou did.

Although he had run a successful sheep and bird farm in Dakar for nearly a decade, he was still struggling.

“I felt stuck. In addition to running my business, I was working in a factory, but I was still barely making ends meet,” he recalls.

So, at the age of 30, he sold all his belongings, bought a one-way ticket to Nicaragua in Central America, and traveled overland from there to the United States.

Fallou’s brother had settled in the United States, and the countless Senegalese on TikTok sharing photos and videos of themselves hiking in Central America also encouraged him to leave.

“My mother didn’t want me to go, but I was ready to face death,” he said.

With the help of smugglers, Fallou travelled over 16 days through Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, spending more than $10,000 (£7,600) on his journey.

By comparison, poorer migrants traveling by boat from Senegal to the Canary Islands typically pay smugglers about $450.

Farrow said his sacrifice also came with fear.

“I saw several people die,” he said.

“But I saw some women pushing forward, even with their babies on their backs, and I thought: ‘I have to be strong.'”

After being held in a U.S. detention camp for several days, Fallu was eventually allowed to stay in the U.S. as an asylum seeker. He was later reunited with his brother and now works as a mechanic.

Farlow was lucky, but many African immigrants to the United States were not.

Last September, more than 140 Senegalese were deported after crossing the Mexico-US border.

Human rights groups and expatriate communities supporting new immigrants report that shelters are often overwhelmed by such cases.

Some migrants have no choice but to sleep on the streets. Others may be allowed to temporarily live in mosques.

Despite growing interest among West Africans in alternative migration routes, the majority of African migrants still try to reach Europe via the Mediterranean.

The United Nations Migration Agency (IOM) says that over the past decade More than 28,000 migrants have drowned in these waters Alone.

“People are leaving (West Africa) because they are facing a combination of security, institutional, nutrition, health, post-pandemic and environmental issues,” said migration expert Aly Tandian.

Even though Senegal is a relatively peaceful country and its new president has pledged to create jobs for young people, the number of people leaving the country is still increasing.

Since the new government was elected in March, it has managed to reduce the prices of some basic necessities such as oil, bread and rice, thus easing pressure on the cost of living.

But that’s not enough.

“We all thought that the hope brought by regime change would stop the resurgence of migration flows, but unfortunately that is not the case,” said Boubacar Thayer, director of the NGO Horizon Without Borders.

“Despair and doubt have permeated our social environment, and people no longer believe that their destiny can be realized here,” he added.

Mr Sayer has written a formal letter to the Senegalese authorities requesting an investigation into what happened to the boat, which was spotted off the Dominican Republic.

He said the report showed that “there is a criminal economy behind these illegal immigrants. They are trafficking in drugs, weapons, people and even organs.”

After July 89 bodies found in boat off Mauritania coastSenegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko publicly called on young people not to take the dangerous Atlantic route to Europe.

“The future of the world is in Africa and you young people need to realise that,” he said.

Yet for the large numbers of young Africans who still risk their lives to travel to Europe and the United States, their future does not lie at home.