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Malian Madala Tounkara was nonetheless a minor when he boarded a small wood fishing boat seven years in the past and set off on a deadly sea voyage from the coast of Mauritania in West Africa.
Like many African migrants, his longed-for vacation spot was the Canary Islands — a Spanish archipelago off Africa’s northwest coast.
To succeed in Gran Canaria, the boat carrying Tounkara needed to deal with the raging waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
“The final day was the worst. I did not have any power left [to hold on],” the younger Malian advised DW. “I used to be very scared the entire time. However then, if you’re abruptly in such an excessive scenario, the concern fades.”
However Tounkara survive the journey.
He now earns his cash from boxing and dealing in restaurant kitchens in Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria, one of many eight islands that make up the archipelago.
The three-way path to Europe
Whereas some migrants journey the western Mediterranean route by way of Niger, Mali, and Algeria to Morocco and throughout the Mediterranean to Spain, others take the central Mediterranean route, which begins in Libya and results in Malta or Italian islands like Lampedusa or Sicily.
However the West African Atlantic path to the Canary Islands, the one undertaken by Tounkara, is rising in reputation with migrants.
And because the numbers of migrants making the difficult crossing rises, so, too, does the quantity who lose their lives attempting. The Spanish support group Caminando Fronteras recorded 4,000 deaths of individuals attempting to achieve the Canary Islands by boat in 2021.
A whole bunch buried within the Atlantic
Nonetheless, the variety of victims documented by Caminando Fronteras is about three and a half occasions greater than that of the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM).
The latter speaks of 1,109 migrants who died in 2021. One cause for this discrepancy is that Caminando Fronteras, which is properly networked in northwest Africa, has direct contact with survivors of boats which have sunk and with migrants’ households in Africa.
Knowledge is cross-checked with data from migrant communities and social businesses.
The IOM additionally believes migration by way of the West African Atlantic route is growing.
“Lately, extra folks have died or disappeared on this passage. In 2021, at the least 73 boat accidents had been recorded on this route, killing 1109 migrants,” Alpha Seydi Ba, spokesperson of the IOM workplace in Dakar, advised DW.
He mentioned that greater than three-quarters of those documented deaths had been folks lacking and declared lifeless.
These migrants had been fortunate to have made it to Gran Canaria
Sea-bound migrants know the chance
Nonetheless, Madala Tounkara, the younger Malian in Las Palmas, believes that much more folks misplaced their lives throughout the crossing.
“No person is aware of what number of are lifeless or floating round at sea. Usually [the boats] merely run out of meals or water, or gasoline. That is how most individuals die,” Tounkara mentioned. “They know the chance.”
However the risks do not deter the migrants.
In line with the Spanish inside ministry, greater than 22,300 folks landed irregularly within the Canary Islands in 2021.
“It is a slight lower in comparison with 2020, however nonetheless a dramatic enhance in comparison with earlier years,” IOM’s Seydi Ba mentioned, including that between 2010 and 2019, these numbers had been within the a whole bunch, “not tens of hundreds.”
He mentioned that [for most migrants], staying at house means resigning oneself to an unsure life.
Folks additionally face social pressures to go away from their households: Youngsters in Europe might provide their dad and mom higher dwelling requirements.
“So staying is shameful not just for them but additionally for his or her dad and mom, who usually assist or finance these journeys,” Seydi Ba mentioned.
Protected and common migration
In line with the IOM, 25.4 million Africans migrated to a different nation looking for a greater future in 2020.
Curiously, 80% of African migrants sought greener pastures throughout the continent, with Ivory Coast and South Africa the popular locations, in line with the IOM.
African migration to Western international locations accounts for slightly below 15% of the continent’s migration. Of that, practically 85% is authorized.
The IOM says it isn’t in opposition to migration. “It’s a basic proper and helpful not just for migrants but additionally for host communities,” Seydi Ba harassed. “Nonetheless, to harness the potential of migration for sustainable financial progress, it needs to be secure, orderly, and common.”
1000’s of Africans danger their lives in such tiny boats to achieve European shores
Supporting these left behind
In Madala Tounkara’s native Mali, family comply with his each transfer in Spain.
Half of Malians stay in poverty, which the COVID-19 pandemic and political crises have exacerbated.
The college charges and meals of the kids in his prolonged household all come from the cash Tounkara earns from his favourite sport, boxing, and jobs in Spanish restaurant kitchens.
Tama Koita, Tounkara’s uncle, advised DW that the household relies on Tounkara for survival.
“He got down to free us from struggling. We all know he works very onerous to try this and would not have it simple the place he’s,” Koita mentioned.
Koita’s home is near one in every of Bamako’s bus stations. Younger Malians depart from right here daily to hunt their fortune in Europe, like Tounkara.
Some even know him from earlier than when he lived within the neighborhood.
“Madala is one in every of us,” one younger man advised DW. “We comply with every little thing he does. At some point we want to be like him.”
However Madala Tounkara is not certain whether or not he needs to encourage others in his house city to make the perilous journey. He is aware of that a few of them may not survive.
Jan-Philipp Scholz in Spain and Ismail Dicko in Mali contributed to this text.
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