By Laura F. Palomo, Fatima Z. Bouaziz and María Traspaderne
Sfax (Tunisia)/ Nador (Morocco) (EFE) who travel dangerous land routes between the Maghreb countries to find an outlet to the sea that will take them to Europe.
The containment of the migratory flow in the western Mediterranean, from Morocco and Algeria, or through the border of Ceuta and Melilla, has reactivated these maritime routes, mainly from the African Atlantic coast, Tunisia and Libya, and also the number of deaths that, alert organizations, may double the official numbers. According to the NGO Caminando Fronteras, 2,390 people died in 2022 on their journeys to Spain.
“We talk about deaths at sea, but those who die in the desert are not counted. For example, in the Agadez desert, when they leave for Algeria, many die. They are buried and left there,” explains Frank Iyanga, general secretary of the Democratic Organization of Immigrant Workers (ODTI), to EFE.
According to testimonies of migrants collected by EFE, given the impossibility of crossing the western Mediterranean from Morocco, the alternative route passes through the central Mediterranean for what they need to travel, and in some cases undo, an imprecise path, full of risks, through Algeria towards Tunisia and Libya.
The president of the Association for Aid to Migrants in Vulnerable Situations (ASMV), Hassan Ammari, explains to EFE that his NGO -based in the eastern Moroccan city of Oujda- receives more and more Moroccan families who report the disappearance of their children in his attempt to emigrate from the Tunisian route.
Atlantic Route, towards Spain
Sub-Saharans arrive in Morocco via two main routes: from Mauritania across the Western Sahara border or via the Algerian border in the north of the country.
They come from countries in conflict or especially impoverished such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon or Sudan. To get there, they often have to cross the Sahara desert, where the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has recorded 5,719 deaths since 2014. In reality, the numbers are higher.
Moroccan border control on the Mediterranean coasts and around Ceuta and Melilla (specifically after the tragedy of June 24, 2022 when 23 migrants died in an attempt by nearly 2,000 people to jump over the Melilla fence) made the route Atlantic to the Spanish Canary Islands will experience a rebound.
Boats also arrive in the Canary Islands from Mauritania or Senegal, on even longer routes of up to 1,500 kilometres. According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, from January to mid-June 5,914 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands, in flight that can cost up to 8,000 euros.
The border reinforcement in this western end of Africa has pushed many to take the land route to Tunisia or Libya, to embark on small boats to Italy.
Central Mediterranean route, towards Italy
The Tunisian fisherman, Wassim, acknowledges to EFE that this year he comes across many more migrant boats during his work than in previous periods, before which he usually calls the Tunisian National Guard for his rescue. In some cases, corpses.
“There is no solution, the only solution is to get them out of the sea, neither more nor less,” he says from the fishing port of Sfax, the second largest city in the North African country, which has become one of the main points on the route. migration to Europe, exceeding Libya in some periods.
“They came from poverty, they thought they were going to paradise”, he sums up what he thinks about on a day-to-day basis, especially during his night shifts, in which he spots these exits and shipwrecks. He intuits that the mafias have organized themselves.
A few meters away, another fisherman details to EFE the difference for the security of the journey that the Tunisians pay, between 2,000 and 2,500 euros for a boat of 40 people, more stable; and what sub-Saharan Africans pay, about 1,300 euros, for crowding hundreds in precarious boats.
A young Ivorian, who asks to testify before the EFE cameras with his back turned for anonymity and has managed to find a job in this port, testifies for the hundreds of Susharans he sees returning to the dock. Many compatriots, since Ivory Coast is the first nationality (14%) of the more than 60,000 migrants who have arrived in Italy by this route so far this year.
The IOM has registered 103,510 attempts to cross the Mediterranean route (western, central and eastern); with more than 1,800 dead as well as hundreds missing, which at this rate will make 2023 the deadliest year.
“Everyone has reasons to cross the Mediterranean, I can’t blame anyone. Sentence, who?”, sentenced this young Ivorian who has found a job in Tunisia and sees many compatriots leave and die.