THIAROYE-SUR-MER, Senegal (AP) — Salamba Ndiaye was 22 when she first tried to get to Spain, dreaming of a career as a real estate agent. Without her parents’ knowledge, she boarded a small fishing boat, a pirogue, but Senegalese police intercepted the vessel before it could leave.
A year later, Ndiaye tried again and managed to reach the coast. This time, the boat had to stop in Morocco because of a heavy storm. There, Ndiaye and the other passengers were sent back to Senegal.
Despite her two failed attempts, the 28-year-old is determined to try again. “If they told me now that there was a boat going to Spain, I would leave this interview and get on it,” she said.
Ndiaye is one of the thousands of young Senegalese who trying to leave the West African country to Spain every year, fleeing poverty and lack of employment. Most go to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of West Africa, which is used as a stepping stone to continental Europe.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 22,300 people have have landed in the Canary Islands126% more than in the same period last year, according to statistics from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
Earlier this year, the EU signed a 210 million euro deal with Mauritania to stop smugglers from launching boats to Spain. But the deal has had little effect on the arrival of migrants so far.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is visiting Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia this week to tackle irregular migration. The West African countries are the main launching pads for migrants travelling by boat.
The Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest in the worldWhile there is no accurate death toll due to the lack of information on departures from West Africa, Spanish migrant rights group Walking Borders estimates the number of victims this year alone is in the thousands.
Migrant boats that get lost or get into trouble often disappear into the Atlantic Ocean, while some drift across the ocean for months until they found in the Caribbean And Latin America containing only human remains.
But the danger of the route is no deterrent for people like Ndiaye, who are desperate to make a better life for themselves and their families in Europe. “Barsa wala Barsakh,” or “Barcelona or die” in Wolof, one of Senegal’s national languages, is a common motto among those who brave the deadly route.
“Even if we stay here, we are in danger,” said Cheikh Gueye, 46, a fisherman from Thiaroye-sur-Mer, the same village on the outskirts of Senegal’s capital where Ndiaye is from.
“If you are sick and you can’t afford the treatment, aren’t you at risk? So we take our chances, either we get there or we don’t get there,” he added.
Gueye also attempted to reach Europe via the Atlantic route, but only reached Morocco due to bad weather and was sent back to Senegal.
Like many residents of Thiaroye-sur-Mer, he earned a decent living as a fisherman before fish stocks began to decline ten years ago due to overfishing.
“These big boats have changed things, even before kids could catch fish here with a net,” Gueye said, pointing into the shallow water.
“Now we have to go more than 50 kilometres out to sea before we find fish and even then we don’t find enough, at most a little bit,” he adds.
Gueye and Ndiaye blame fishing agreements between Senegal and the European Union and China, which allow foreign industrial trawlers to fish in Senegalese waters. The agreements limit what they can catch, but it has proven difficult to monitor what the big boats from Europe, China and Russia bring in.
In preparation for the Spanish prime minister’s visit to Senegal on Wednesday, Ndiaye’s mother, Fatou Niang, 67, says the Senegalese and Spanish governments should focus on providing employment opportunities for young people in the West African country to discourage them from migrating.
“These children know nothing but the sea, and now the sea has nothing. If you do something for the youth, they won’t leave,” says Niang.
“But if they don’t, well, we can’t let them stay. There’s no work here,” she said.
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Ndeye Sene Mbengue, an Associated Press editor in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.
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