Two cayucos about to burst have made history on the Canary Islands migration route. The first arrived in El Hierro on October 3rd with 271 people on board and the shocking image of the barely 25 meter long barge entering the harbor attracted newspapers, radios and televisions to the westernmost of the Canary Islands. Never before had so many people been seen in a single canoe, and this milestone was ultimately a before and after on the route that broke all arrival records in the month of October. Just 18 days later, another Cayuco broke the previous mark with 320 people.
Neither ship should have arrived so loaded, but much of these two voyages, which began in Senegal, were the result of hopelessness, calamity and chaos. Five of his passengers tell what happened, why the boats were overcrowded and how they got to El Hierro. His story goes beyond numbers and reveals the desperation of thousands of people who want to leave their country, even without knowing what they will find at their destination.
The one carrying 271 people was the fourth canoe thrown into the sea by a group of fishermen from Joal, a coastal town southeast of Dakar. In the end it was the last one. Although authorities resort to the mafia fantasy to explain irregular immigration, what three of its residents describe is more of a solution between neighbors. Organized – and with thousands of euros invested – but a solution that didn’t go as expected. “Those who organize these trips are ordinary people who have seen the demand and are taking advantage of it. “These are people who end up bringing their own family into the canoe,” explains Mbaye, one of the barge’s occupants.
Arrival of a canoe with 271 people in El Hierro on October 3rd. Maritime Rescue (EFE)
In fact, demand is increasing. The departure of thousands of young people from Senegal has greatly reactivated the route to the Canary Islands and more than 32,000 people have already landed on the islands aboard unsafe wooden boats. This is a historic record and there are still almost two months left until the end of the year. They emigrate from Senegal, attracted by a wealthier life in Europe, but they are also fleeing a political environment that is slowly suffocating. Mbaye, a member of the now-banned main opposition party, left the party because he felt threatened. “I have a lot of friends in prison because they demonstrated,” he says. “The president made it clear that those of us who disagreed with his administration had to leave, and there are mercenaries reminding us of that,” he explains.
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The canoe trip from Senegal to the Canary Islands costs between 600 and 1,000 euros and depends on the value of the canoe. This colored painted example was one of the new ones and cost 14 million CFA francs (approx. 21,350 euros). It is told by Hakim, another resident who knows the man who organized the trip well. “They do the math… They add up the price of the canoe, the price of gas, the price of food… And they calculate how many people they need to cover expenses and make money,” he explains. According to these figures, this barge was supposed to transport 150 people, who would pay 1,000 euros each. “But when we left, more than 350 people showed up on the beach and wanted to go up. “It was chaos,” residents of a cafeteria in the center of Madrid agreed.
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The ship’s owners had developed a system to fill the ship and organize boarding. They printed 150 numbered tickets and distributed them to those who paid their fares. Some received up to ten pieces of paper to promote the trip to their friends and were able to come for free. Everything was going well until then, but there were people who forged the tickets and sold dozens of places that didn’t exist.
On the night of September 26, more than three hundred people tried to get on the boats that would take them to Cayuco, which was anchored about 21 kilometers north, very close to Mbour. Four burly men, Senegalese professional wrestlers, were responsible for boarding, although there was no way to restore order. “We couldn’t fit in the boats, they forced people who had paid to get out,” Mbaye remembers.
Disembarkation of 271 people in the port of La Restinga (El Hierro) on October 3rd. Gelmert Finol (EFE)
The large group, with their small backpacks on their backs, finally reached the canoe, equipped with two engines of 40 and 60 horsepower. Four people paid by the organizers were responsible for navigation and in turn had the help of other inmates like them. “Many of us are fishermen, we know how to navigate,” they explain. It is these captains who are pursued by the Spanish police when they arrive on land to accuse them of the crime of facilitating illegal immigration, but in these arrests the heart of the alleged mafia is rarely attacked, nor is it necessarily so successful. “As we approached land, we changed our position. “I, who had the GPS, hid the device and the phone and threw it into the water,” explains Mbaye. “When we arrive, no one says who drove the canoe,” adds Hakim.
In the GPS that guided this boat and was in the hands of Mbaye, three destinations were registered: Gran Canaria, Tenerife and El Hierro. The canoe initially headed towards Gran Canaria. “It is closer and easier to get to, but as we approached the coast of Nouakchott (Mauritania) we came across a fishing boat. They greeted us, but we thought they would report us, so we changed the route to get away from the coast,” explains Hakim. And so they set off for El Hierro, the last piece of land they could reach before getting lost in the Atlantic.
The journey lasted eight days and became more complicated after the fourth day when the canoe passed near Western Sahara. The good conditions in which many of the migrants who disembarked in October arrived gave the feeling that the journey was easy. The false report was even spread again that there were mother ships that transport the cayucos and release them again as soon as they approach the Canary coast. “It was hell from the fourth day,” claims Mamadou, the quietest of the three. They hardly ate (there was only couscous and cookies) and sleeping was impossible due to lack of space. The residents began to lose their minds.
“At sea, people go crazy, can’t sleep at night and have hallucinations,” explains Hakim. “You lose your orientation. “Consider that we had seen nothing but sky and water for more than four days,” he describes.
Shipwrecked delusions are common in the stories of castaways, sailors and migrants and are caused by fatigue and lack of sleep. In the middle of the sea, on board a canoe, some announced that they were going to buy tobacco and jumped into the water without turning back. “Many became angry and shouted that they were going to die or that they would never see their families again… They bit each other and we had to tie their hands and cover their mouths…” explains Hakim. “One guy looked at me and instead of seeing me, he told me he saw a goat,” Ibrahima laughs now. “If it were just a few it would be manageable, but there were at least a hundred people in this situation,” Mbaye added.
The days dawned clear, but the sea was rough because of the gusts of wind. There were times when the waves would float the canoe twenty feet high. They sailed against the wind. “The engines took us at about 17 kilometers per hour, but with the waves we couldn’t get past eight,” explains Mbaye. “It was very complicated,” he concludes.
Criminals with machetes
A few weeks later, on October 14, another ship with similar characteristics began replenishing at sea. Here too there was chaos.
Cheick Abdulaja, one of the occupants of a canoe that arrived in El Hierro on October 21 with 320 people on board, poses in Almería.María Martín
Cheick Abdulaja told his mother he was leaving that same morning when he went to the beach. He was the second child to leave in the same month. “She was in shock,” Abdulaja remembers in Almería, where he is staying. That day the wind whipped the trees. “Many people had already died and we were a little afraid of the time,” he remembers.
At nine in the morning, a small boat with 15 people on it began to transport the emigrants to the large Cayuco. The women and children went first, but there were hundreds of people on the sand, eager to get ahead. Boarding was canceled and did not resume until the afternoon. “There were a lot of fights, everything was out of control,” Cheick remembers. “We thought there were about 150 of us, but things started to get complicated. There were people who wanted to leave because it was not safe and the organizers offered to refund their money,” explains Ibrahima with a permanent smile and a toothpick in his mouth. “It was difficult for those who came from the interior and were unfamiliar with some of the codes of those of us who come from the sea. In such a situation you have to assert yourself, you have to be strong,” he adds.
As if that wasn’t enough, a group of criminals appeared on the beach. They call them malfaiteurs, evildoers in French. Men armed with machetes tried to force their way into the canoe. “The organizers also carry machetes to confront them. But the bad guys won,” explains Ibrahima. The survivors of the first Cayuco describe a similar attack during their embarkation.
After days of hallucinations at sea in which dozens of people disappeared, the 320 inmates sighted the mountains of the island of El Hierro. “All the heads returned to their place,” says Ibrahima. “We started screaming, we were happy.”
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