Ships leave the sand of the Sahara to transport immigrants to Spain

DAKHLA, Western Sahara (AP) – Under a starry sky in the Sahara, smugglers and handcuffs discover a ship buried in the sand, a ship tailored to transport migrants from the North African coast to the Canary Islands.

With experienced skill, the men lift the blue-bottomed wooden boat aboard a four-wheeled traction vehicle that will take it from this inland hiding place to the coast of Western Sahara. From here, the ship wants to take 20 to 30 migrants to the Atlantic Ocean and through what the European Union border agency calls “the most dangerous migratory route in the world.”

Boat delivery is a crucial, but little-seen, piece of the immigrant smuggling chain to the disputed Western Sahara, a business that thrived last year as the coronavirus pandemic brought many Africans down in the poverty and, with other suffocated routes, migration to the Canary Islands multiplied eightfold at the highest rates ever recorded.

Encouraged by Spanish and EU aid, Moroccan authorities in control of Western Sahara – where some residents have long sought independence – are increasingly repressing themselves and thwarted a recent boat trip witnessed by The Associated Press.

But many others succeed, as smugglers dodge police helicopter outposts in the desert and reach coastal fishing towns around Dakhla. The peninsular city has a thriving fishing port and kitesurfing enthusiasts flock to its waters. But in recent months, its beaches have become a hot spot for smuggling networks overlooking the Canary Islands, 500 kilometers (300 miles) north.

Although irregular crossings to Europe declined globally in 2020, the route to the Canary Islands experienced a significant increase, with the arrival of some 22,600 migrants, making Spain the main point of entry for migrants. they were trying to reach European shores last year, according to data from the EU and the Spanish government. At least 600 people died or disappeared trying to make the trip.

The resurgence of the route has been driven in part by COVID-19.

The pandemic has wiped out livelihoods across Morocco, cutting tourism revenues and periodically shutting down local businesses. While in the past most arrivals in the Canary Islands were from sub-Saharan Africa, now about half are Moroccan. According to the International Organization for Migration, ships also routinely left the West African coasts of Guinea, Gambia and Mauritania.

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

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

He says he makes one trip a week, while competitors send up to 10 boats a night. It is estimated that half of all migratory attempts fail, either due to problems before departure or to the sea.

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

The IOM Missing Migrants Project 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. They are still investigating another eight missing ships with 355 people on board.

The Dakhla resident said migrants pay $ 2,000 for the trip (a lot in Morocco, where the typical worker earns a few hundred dollars a month), but would not say how much he earns himself.

“I don’t know where they get the 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 handcuffs. They passed the police checkpoints and then diverted the road to the endless expanse of the desert. The driver had a GPS coordinate on the phone and was crossing the sand with the experience of someone who seemed to have made the route many times.

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

Just as they were preparing to return, the smugglers received a message about the “movement” of the police and were told to abandon ship. Within minutes, the boat was back under the sand, and the tent and equipment disappeared.

As the men were returning to the city, police stopped his car and searched for signs of contraband, but found none.

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

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

It can take up to four days to get to the Canary Islands and people arrive in terrible shape. They generally do not take food during the trip and very little water, if any, according to migration agencies.

But deterring people from taking risks is a huge challenge in a global economic crisis. As steps increased last year to the highest level since the EU border agency began collecting data in 2009, Spain sent senior government officials to Senegal and Morocco in November to discuss how to stop the steps.

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 tackle the problem. For its part, Moroccan police have said it prevented nearly 10,000 migrants from crossing into Europe last year and the government agreed to recover deported Moroccans.

But still hundreds of people try the trip. In 2021, six deaths have already been reported on the Canary Islands route, the most recent being a boy who drowned.

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

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