A dangerous journey across the ocean

I met Ibahima Koulibali as a patient after his arrival in Gran Canaria after 5 days on a migrant boat (or 'patera', as we call them in Spanish). In a rubber dinghy where no more than 10 people should go, he came accompanied by 32 men, 7 women, and 4 children. They ran out of gasoline on the second day, and due to the weight of everyone on board, the dinghy started losing air. Adrift and unsure of their fate, three days passed until Maritime Rescue located them.

They only had a few cans of sardines and milk as supplies, which didn't last much longer than the gasoline. Hours and days went by tightly packed, unable to move, exposed to the harsh weather and sea conditions. Many were vomiting due to seasickness or dehydration. Desperate, some tried to drink seawater or even urine to ease their thirst. Eventually, everyone was rescued and reached land, dehydrated, hoarse, sick, covered in wounds and ulcers, but alive.

Ibrahima's journey is not much different from that of tens of thousands of migrants who arrive by raft each year on the Canary Islands, crossing the deadliest migration route on the planet. In 2023 39,910 migrants arrived, but 6,007 people lost their lives along the way.

There are journeys of all kinds, but Ibrahima's is not the most dramatic. We saw people adrift for 14 days, a raft of 40 people with only one survivor, a mother who lost her baby from her arms in a storm and it fell into the sea...

For two years, I worked in the Primary Care team that assisted these migrants upon their arrival and during their stay in Gran Canaria. There, I heard stories of extreme desperation and suffering, stories that drive people to risk their lives, spend all they have, and go into debt, anything to escape. Stories so extreme that they make the suffering of the raft journey pale in comparison.

A raft journey costs around 2000-3000 euros, for risking one's life, for almost certain shipwreck, for suffering in inhumane conditions. And we're talking about the final stretch of the journey, the last effort of migratory journeys that usually last between 2 and 3 years.

Now that you know a bit of what a 'patera' entails, I invite you to reflect... What can drive someone to do something like this?