Migrants trying to reach Europe pushed to brave deadly Atlantic Ocean

More than 250 people are known to have died or gone missing so far this year trying to reach the Spanish Canary Islands off West Africa

The increase in traffic comes after the EU funded Morocco in 2019 to stop migrants from reaching southern mainland Spain

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Two migrants sit on a fishing boat as people enjoy the beach on Gran Canaria island last month. Photo: AP

Published: 10:20pm, 2 Sep 2020Updated: 10:20pm, 2 Sep 2020

The only person who wasn’t crying on the boat was 2-year-old Noura.

Noura’s mother, Hawa Diabaté, was fleeing her native Ivory Coast to what she believed was continental Europe. Unlike the 60 adults on board, only Noura was oblivious to the risks of crossing the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean in an overcrowded rubber dinghy.

As the waves quickly got bigger and people more nervous, Noura told her mother, “Be quiet, mama! Boza, mama! Boza!”, Diabaté recalled. The expression is used by sub-Saharan migrants to celebrate a successful crossing.

After several hours in the ocean, it was finally “Boza”. Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service brought them to safety on one of the Canary Islands.

Migrants and asylum seekers are increasingly crossing a treacherous part of the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago near West Africa, in what has become one of the most dangerous routes to European territory. Noura and her mother are among about 4,000 people to have survived the perilous journey this year.

But many never make it. More than 250 people are known to have died or gone missing so far this year according to the International Organisation for Migration. That is already more than the number of people who perished trying to cross the Western Mediterranean in all of last year. In a recent week on the islands, at least 20 bodies were recovered.