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WORLD NEWS Thursday 21 January 2021

Boats emerge from Sahara sand to transport migrants to Spain

By MOSA'AB ELSHAMY boat. Within minutes, the
Associated Press vessel was deep beneath
DAKHLA, Western Sahara the sand again — and the
(AP) — Beneath a star- tent and equipment gone.
packed sky in the Sahara, As the men drove back to-
smugglers and handymen ward town, police stopped
unearth a boat buried in their car and searched it
the sand, a made-to-order for signs of smuggling —
vessel for carrying migrants but found none.
from the North African The carpenter said he built
coast to Spain's Canary Is- the boat in the desert to
lands. avoid attracting atten-
With seasoned skill, the men tion — a common prac-
hoist the blue-bottomed tice, though smugglers
wooden boat atop a four- also sometimes simply buy
wheel drive vehicle that boats from fishermen. The
will take it from this inland carpenter, who said he
hideaway to the Western earns about 20,000 dirham
Sahara shore. From there, ($2,000) per vessel, spoke
the boat is meant to take on condition of anonymity
20 to 30 migrants into the because of the connection
Atlantic Ocean and across to smuggling networks.
what the European Union's When such boats make it
border agency calls "the A tent where smugglers stay while building fishing boats to be used to carry migrants to the Canary to Dakhla, they find plenty
most dangerous migratory Islands, is set up in a remote part of the desert out of the town of Dakhla in Morocco-administered of takers.
Western Sahara, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020.
route in the world." Associated Press It can take up to four days
The boat handover is a cru- to get to the Canaries,
cial but little-seen piece main point of entry for mi- before departure or at sea. At the meeting point, the and people arrive in ter-
of the migrant smuggling grants trying to reach Eu- One recent failure was visi- men found a white tent rible shape. They generally
chain in disputed West- ropean shores last year, ble on the shores of the Da- and a young boat-builder don't take food on the jour-
ern Sahara — a business according to EU and Span- khla peninsula: the freshly — and unearthed a large ney and very little water, if
that thrived last year, as ish government figures. charred remains of a mi- boat. any, according to migra-
the coronavirus pandemic At least 600 people died grant boat that caught fire. Just as they prepared to tion agencies.
plunged many Africans or disappeared trying to The fate of those aboard is head back, the smug- But deterring people from
into poverty and, with make the journey. unclear. glers received a message taking the risk is a huge
other routes choked off, The resurgence of the route IOM's Missing Migrants Proj- about police "movement" challenge in a global eco-
migration to the Canary Is- has been driven in part by ect provisionally recorded and were told to leave the nomic crisis. q
lands jumped eight-fold to COVID-19. 601 deaths or disappear-
the highest rates ever re- The pandemic has wiped ances on the Canary route
corded. out livelihoods across Mo- last year, including at least
Encouraged by aid from rocco by cutting off tourism 109 who left from Dakhla or
Spain and the EU, the Mo- revenue and periodically were found near Dakhla.
roccan authorities who shutting down local busi- They are still investigating
control Western Sahara — nesses. While in the past another eight missing boats
where some residents have most arrivals in the Canar- with 355 people aboard.
long sought independence ies were from sub-Saharan The Dakhla resident said
— are increasingly crack- Africa, now about half are migrants pay $2,000 for the
ing down and thwarted a Moroccans. Boats also rou- trip — a vast sum in Mo-
recent boat transfer wit- tinely set out from the West rocco, where the typical
nessed by The Associated African shores of Guinea, worker earns a few hun-
Press. Gambia and Mauritania, dred dollars a month — but
But many others succeed, according to the Interna- wouldn't say how much he
as smugglers dodge po- tional Organization for Mi- earns himself.
lice helicopter searchlights gration. "I don't know where they
in the desert and reach A resident of Dakhla who get the money from, but
fishing towns on the coast organizes trips for migrants they want to leave at any
around Dakhla. The penin- said economic difficulties cost," he said.
sula city boasts a thriving drove him to work for a One recent night, a group
fishing port, and kitesurfing smuggling network. of smugglers left Dakhla
enthusiasts flock to its wa- "We had to make money and headed inland, fol-
ters. But in recent months, and feed our families," the lowed by a vehicle carry-
its beaches have become 32-year-old told the AP on ing a dozen handymen.
a hot spot for smuggling condition of anonymity be- They drove past police
networks eyeing the Ca- cause what he does is ille- checkpoints then turned
naries, 500 kilometers (300 gal. off the highway into the
miles) north. He says he puts together endless expanse of desert.
Although irregular crossings one trip per week, while The driver had a GPS co-
to Europe dropped overall competitors send out up ordinate on a phone and
in 2020, the Canary Islands to 10 boats a night. He es- crossed the sand with the
route saw a significant rise, timates as many as half of experience of someone
with some 22,600 migrants the migration attempts fail, who seemed to have tak-
arriving, making Spain the either because of problems en the route many times.