A WhatsApp voice message came in from Moustapha Diouf a little over a month ago. “It has started again,” he said, “the pirogues are heading to the Canary Islands. The route has picked up again.” Diouf is one of the spokesmen of AJRAP, a small association of migrant deportees in Thiaroye-sur-Mer, a fishing community on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal. By this he meant that traditional pirogue fishing boats are once again filling up with West African migrants ready to brave the Atlantic Ocean to reach Europe. More than a thousand migrants reached the Spanish archipelago within few days. It’s a development that alarms and saddens Diouf. He knows from experience that such journeys can end up having lethal consequences for the migrants involved and create deep wounds of grief in local communities. But he is not surprised that people are leaving.
Since 2015, increasing activity on the so-called Western African Maritime Route has led to rumours that the route was about to open up again. And for years, Diouf has worried that the local youth would follow in his own footsteps and those of the more than 32,000 migrants who arrived in the Spanish Canary Islands in 2006. This is why AJRAP seeks to raise awareness of the dangers of irregular migration and to push officials and international NGOs to create alternative livelihood options for the youth. Diouf knows it is an almost impossible mission. Young men, like those of his generation, are ready to “dem ba dee” – go or die trying. “You have to understand that young people are tired of poverty and of the lack of fish and of job alternatives,” he said. “They can’t stay put anymore.”
Arrivals in Spain continue to climb
Nearly 20,000 migrants have arrived in the Canary Islands this year. More than 5,000 came in November alone, compared to 2,698 in all of 2019. The islands were not well prepared for the large inflow, and have struggled to accommodate the numerous arriving migrants, who come from the coastal states of Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, and The Gambia, as well as from other African countries like Algeria, Mali, Guinea-Conakry, and even South Sudan. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has reported that recruitment of potential migrants for the overseas journey to Europe is growing and that 545 boats have reached the islands so far this year.
