Boats leave the Sahara to transport migrants to Spain

DAKHLA, Western Sahara (AP) – Under a starry sky in the Sahara, smugglers and handymen discover a boat buried in the sand, a custom-made ship to transport migrants from the North African coast to the Canary Islands of Spain.

With experienced skill, the men lift the blue-bottomed wooden boat over an all-wheel drive vehicle that will take her from this inner hiding place to the shores of Western Sahara. From there, the boat is meant to take between 20 and 30 migrants to the Atlantic Ocean and over what the European Union border agency calls “the most dangerous migration route in the world”.

Crafting is a crucial but little-seen piece of the migrant smuggling chain in the Western Sahara dispute – a business that thrived last year as the coronavirus pandemic plunged many Africans into poverty and, by other stifled routes, migration to The Canary Islands grew eightfold at the highest rates ever.

Encouraged by the help of Spain and the EU, the Moroccan authorities controlling Western Sahara – where some residents have long sought independence – are increasingly repressing themselves and thwarting a recent boat transfer, assisted by The Associated Press.

But many others succeed, while smugglers avoid police helicopter projectors in the desert and end up in the fishing towns on the coast around Dakhla. The city of the peninsula boasts a thriving fishing port, and kitesurfing enthusiasts gather at its waters. But in recent months, its beaches have become a hot spot for smuggling networks across the Canary Islands, 500 kilometers (300 miles) north.

Although irregular crossings to Europe have generally declined in 2020, the Canary Islands route has increased significantly, reaching around 22,600 migrants, making Spain the main point of entry for migrants trying to reach European shores last year, according to figures the EU and Spanish governments. At least 600 people died or disappeared trying to make the journey.

The renaissance of the route was partially led by COVID-19.

The pandemic has destroyed Morocco’s livelihoods by cutting tourism revenues and periodically closing local businesses. While in the past most arrivals in the Canary Islands came from sub-Saharan Africa, now about half are Moroccans. The boats also left the shores of West Africa in Guinea, Gambia and Mauritania, according to the International Organization for Migration.

A Dakhla resident who organizes trips for migrants said that economic difficulties led him to work for a smuggling network.

“We had to earn money and feed our families,” the 32-year-old AP said on condition of anonymity, because what he is doing is illegal.

He says he organizes one trip a week, while competitors send up to 10 boats a night. He estimates that up to half of migration attempts fail, either because of problems before departure or at sea.

A recent failure was visible on the shores of the Dakhla Peninsula: the freshly charred remains of a migrant boat that caught fire. The fate of those on board is unclear.

The ILO project on missing migrants provisionally recorded 601 deaths or disappearances on the Canary Islands route last year, including at least 109 who left Dakhla or were found near Dakhla. It is still investigating eight other missing boats with 355 people on board.

The Dakhla resident said migrants pay $ 2,000 for the trip – a vast sum in Morocco, where the typical worker earns several hundred dollars a month – but would not say how much he earns alone.

“I don’t know where they get their money from, but they want to leave at any cost,” he said.

One recent night, a group of smugglers left Dakhla and headed inland, followed by a vehicle carrying a dozen people on hand. They passed the police checkpoints, then stopped the highway in the endless expanse of the desert. The driver had a GPS coordinate on a phone and was crossing the sand with the experience of someone who seemed to have taken the route many times.

At the meeting point, the men found a white tent and a young boat builder – and dug up a large boat.

As they were preparing to return, the smugglers received a message about the police’s “movement” and were told to leave the boat. Within minutes, the ship was deep under the sand – and the tent and equipment disappeared.

As the men headed for the city, police stopped their car and looked for signs of smuggling – but found none.

The carpenter said he built the boat in the desert to avoid attracting attention – a common practice, although smugglers sometimes buy boats from fishermen. The carpenter, who said he earns about 20,000 dirhams ($ 2,000) per ship, spoke on condition of anonymity because of his connection to smuggling networks.

When such boats arrive in Dakhla, they find a lot of people taking them.

It can take up to four days to reach the Canary Islands, and people arrive in terrible shape. In general, they do not take traveling food and very little water, if any, according to migration agencies.

But discouraging people from taking the risk is a huge challenge in a global economic crisis. As crossings have risen to the highest level since the EU border agency began collecting data in 2009, Spain sent government officials to Senegal and Morocco in November to discuss how to stop crossings.

The EU provides development aid to African countries to help them manage migration and has also set up a € 5 billion ($ 6 billion) trust fund to address the issue. For its part, Moroccan police said they prevented the passage of nearly 10,000 migrants to Europe last year, and the government agreed to take back the deported Moroccans.

But still hundreds of people try the journey. There have already been six deaths in 2021 on the Canary Islands route, most recently a boy who drowned.

“It is absolutely one of the deadliest routes to the European Union,” Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said on Tuesday. “And we don’t really know how many lives have been lost.”

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The Associated Press, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Renata Brito in Barcelona and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.