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First modification: 02/17/2026 - 04:27

Twenty years after the 2006 migration crisis, the Atlantic route between Senegal and the Canary Islands remains one of the most dangerous for migrants. In 2024, more than 10,000 people died or went missing there. Since most of the victims died anonymously, families and associations try to name their victims. Report by Sarah Sakho and Simon Martin for France 24.

It is an anniversary that no one in Senegal will celebrate. Twenty years ago, the great migration crisis of 2006 began, revealing to the world the exile route between West Africa and the Canary Islands.

At that time, hundreds of clandestine boats tried to cross from the Senegalese coast, with a chilling slogan: "Barcelona or death", "Barça ou barsaax". A phrase that became true for thousands of people who disappeared, swallowed by the waves of exodus.

Read also: 30 bodies found in a boat adrift off the coast of Senegal

Twenty years later, the situation has not improved. Although the migratory flow decreased in the 2010s, the crisis has resumed with greater intensity. The year 2024 holds the grim record of deaths on the Atlantic route: more than 10,000 deaths or disappearances, a figure that even exceeds that of the first crisis.

A tragedy that condemns the vast majority of its victims to anonymity. Given the lack of resources and true political will, castaways are almost never identified. Even when bodies are recovered in Senegal, they are hastily buried in mass graves, leaving thousands of families behind unable to grieve.

But in the face of this silence, voices are raised. Associations and relatives are mobilizing, on the ground and on social networks, to name these dead people who torment Senegal.

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