‘It was day 13 or 14 when people started dying’: More than 200 set sail for Europe. Only 36 survived

They had come from near and far: women, men and children, from The Gambia and countries further afield, such as Senegal, Guinea and Mali. Many were the breadwinners for their families. They left without saying goodbye, worried any leak could put their plan in jeopardy.They had dreams in mind: Babylon, some called it. Europe, a continent where crushing poverty seemed possible to escape. They had seen the helpful impact of remittances from those who made it, how it could transform their extended family’s circumstances, giving them a comfortable existence. How the compounds in a village without lights at night were those without someone abroad.Their boat set sail in the last week of June with the goal of reaching the Canary Islands: the southernmost of which, El Hierro, is about 1,600km from The Gambia. On board were more than 200 people, according to those who joined the trip. Within weeks, only 36 would still be alive.This is an account of what happened to that boat, told by survivors, the family members of victims, locals to the area the boat left from, and informed by conversations with authorities, activists, aid workers and a man who had planned to be on board.READ MOREIt is a story of death and survival on what is likely now the deadliest migration route in the world, an account of desperation amid an ever-growing global inequality crisis, and an examination of the extremes that humans are capable of while searching for a better life.Abdoulie Jallow, also known as Ablei, died on the boat. Photograph: Sally Hayden Abdoulie Jallow, aged in his 40s, had four children, the youngest of whom was 18 months old. He had told his wife of 11 years, Awa Kanteh, he wanted to leave The Gambia. Poverty was grating, and the children’s school expenses cost a lot. “‘Let me go, things are too hard … If I go you can be free, I can take good care of you’,” she recalls him saying. “But any time he spoke about going I told him not to go; the boats aren’t safe.”Her husband disappeared one day, then called days later on an unfamiliar number. Kanteh remembers him enquiring about the children, asking her to pray and to forgive him, and promising to call back. When she tried that number again, the man who answered told her Jallow had travelled. Then, Jallow’s brother began hearing rumours of a boat that was missing.Awa Kanteh is mourning her husband Abdoulie Jallow, while caring for their four children. Photograph: Sally Hayden Kanteh cries as she speaks about her husband, saying he had always treated her with kindness. His street business, selling second-hand shoes, was doing relatively well, she says (his nephew, Zakaria, whom Jallow left managing it, says they made at least 700 dalasi − slightly more than €8.11 − profit a day). “But my husband aimed for more. He tried for the family a lot, he struggled a lot, he was the breadwinner. He stood by us. Anything he had he shared with the family, especially with the children.”Jallow had told 22-year-old Zakaria that he would travel. He recruited two others to join him on the boat, Zakaria says, which may have reduced or eliminated his own fare. “I wanted to go with him but he said let me go first and then when I succeed I can organise for you to go,” Zakaria says. Fally Nget (29), who was also known as Fallou, died on the boat. Photograph: Sally Hayden Fally Nget (29) also found a way to get his fare reduced. He was working as a taxi driver with a vehicle he bought with his brother, who wanted to convince him to build a life in The Gambia instead of trying to reach Europe. Unbeknown to his family, when Nget discovered the “agents” needed a driver to transport passengers to the boat, he offered his services, according to multiple people who knew him.At the time, Nget was living in his brother’s home, sleeping on a mattress on the ground. He was preparing for a traditional marriage to a woman in Senegal, whom his family referred to as his “wife”. His brother, who does not want to be named, says Nget was under pressure; his extended family relied on him financially as he was childless and his brother had offspring to care for. “He was a very responsible guy,” says his brother. Each month, Nget would buy them rice and send spending money, known as “fish money”.The mattress where Fally Nget (also known as Fallou) used to sleep, in his brother’s house. Photograph: Sally Hayden Nget left home on June 13th, later sending his brother a voice message saying he had a “mission to run”. Eventually, calls and messages stopped delivering. Almost a week after his final message, Nget’s friend informed his brother he had left the country. It would take almost another month for them to hear reports that Nget had died.Nget’s brother says not receiving Nget’s body was very difficult. They organised prayers and cooked meals for mourners, but it was not the same.He believes Nget and the other travellers stayed in hiding for more than a week before setting off, meaning they may have eaten much of the food they brought, which should have been taken on the boat. “That’s what killed them,” he suggests. “Food and water was not enough, fuel was not enough … Had they said the boat just capsized, people would understand it. [But] saying they died because of hunger and [a lack of] water, it’s very, very painful.”Football player Ousman Colley (25) was among the victims on the boat. Photograph: Sally Hayden Ousman Colley was the only one of the victims from Bafuloto, the quiet area from where the boat set off. The 25-year-old was an eldest son, an unmarried father of two, and the breadwinner of his extended family. He played in the community football team and worked moulding bricks. His mother, Sainabou Sambou, cries as she remembers Colley telling her: “‘My mom, the difficulties you are encountering, I will remove them for you.’”Sainabou Sambou, whose son Ousman Colley died on the boat, holds her granddaughter. Photograph: Sally Hayden One night, he returned home at about 1am, when he ran into his grandmother and told her he would be back shortly. The elderly woman stayed up, but Colley never returned.After a few days, Colley’s friend told the family Colley had asked for forgiveness and was travelling. “That’s how I came to know about the trip,” Sambou says. “He concealed everything.”For a week after they heard about his death; mourners came to the house. “The boy was my hope; he was a very good person,” says Sambou, holding laminated pictures of her son.The Gambia, with a population of roughly 2.9 million, is a sliver of a state that was once a British colony, set inside former French colony Senegal. It is the smallest country on mainland Africa, said to be so-shaped because the British wanted to maintain control of the Gambia river. Poverty is rife; The Gambia ranks 170 out of 193 countries in the Human Development Index, which measures life expectancy, education and per capita income. Ireland’s GDP per capita in 2025 (€113,000) was more than 143 times the size of The Gambia’s (€789).Money from Gambians abroad is keeping the country afloat. Last year, remittances from the diaspora through formal channels alone came to about €746 million, accounting for more than 30 per cent of the country’s GDP, according to local media.Corruption levels are high. The political situation is uncertain. In 2017, dictator Yahya Jammeh was exiled after 22 years in power. A truth and reconciliation process investigated human rights abuses under his rule, but many Gambians say those implicated continue to walk free or even remain in positions of power. New elections are scheduled for later this year. Adama Barrow, who once promised to be a three-year transitional president, is now running for a third term, causing some Gambians to worry that history is repeating itself.The Gambia ranks 170 out of 193 countries in the Human Development Index. Photograph: Sally Hayden In Gambian parlance, “the back way” means any journey to reach Europe without having official permission to travel. Until recent years, it used to commonly refer to what were mostly land journeys, often north to Libya, before likely spending a few days at sea. The Central Mediterranean route, between Libya or Tunisia and Italy or Malta, has been labelled the deadliest migration route in the world. And crossing it has become tougher. Since 2017, the European Union-supported Libyan coastguard has intercepted more than 193,000 people, forcing them back to Libya, where they are often detained indefinitely and victim to human rights abuses including torture, killing, sexual violence and trafficking, as documented by the United Nations and others. It is just one aspect of the hardening of European borders, which has seen the EU spend billions in efforts to stop people from reaching its territory. Some migration activists describe migration routes as like a balloon: if you squeeze one section, another will expand. According to the organisation Caminando Fronteras, at least 635 people died on the so-called Atlantic route in the first five months of 2026, meaning 21 died for every 100 who arrived. More than 20,000 people have died since 2022 on this route, says the organisation. When all sea routes to Spain are included, at least 376 boats have disappeared with everyone on board since 2022, Caminando Fronteras says. Helena Maleno, the organisation’s founder, says this makes the Atlantic route the “deadliest open route in the world”.What happens to missing boats has been suggested at. In 2021, an Associated Press investigation found at least seven boats carrying dead bodies had washed up in the Caribbean and Brazil, all of which appeared to come from Africa. It traced one “ghost boat”, discovering it had left the Mauritanian port city of Nouadhibou, aiming for the Canaries. Some of victims’ families recognised their clothing through photographs shared by reporters.Many of those interviewed for this article say boats are now leaving from The Gambia because the EU’s deals with countries closer to the Canary Islands have made departures from those countries much harder. A spokesman for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said the EU “has significantly increased co-operation with partner countries on all aspects of migration management” and aims for further co-operation to deter “irregular and unsafe departures [and] break the business model of the smugglers”. He said “the western African route saw the steepest decline of any route”. Spain says it is also “supporting” the “security sector” in The Gambia, including through the provision of equipment such as motorbikes. The Gambian Immigration Department regularly posts updates on its Facebook account with information about boats it has confiscated and people it has detained. As in other countries, there are also rumours of security officials being paid to look the other way. The Gambian Immigration Department did not respond to a request for comment. The exact death toll on the Bafuloto boat remains uncertain. In a statement released on July 22nd, the UN-related International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said it believed about 180 people were on the boat, of whom 38 survived. Survivors say two more of those died before they could be treated.Ebrima Drammeh, a 29-year-old Gambian activist who runs a Facebook page sharing updates on boats missing at sea, says he complained to IOM about this. He heard there were some 270 people on the boat, including about 38 women and 18 children. Many had waited in hiding for 10 days before boarding, he heard.Ebrima Drammeh, who runs 'Ebrima Migrants Situation', has more than 104,000 Facebook followers. Photograph: Sally Hayden This was far from the only tragedy this year, Drammeh says. The day before our meeting, he announced another boat had disappeared, after more than six weeks at sea, with at least 163 people on board, including 14 women and 19 Guineans all from one village. The husband of a woman on board was trying to ring her. “She didn’t survive,” he says.Drammeh says he receives thousands of messages and stays up until 3am responding. “No one’s even aware; no one even cares,” he says. But “they have families, they have brothers and sisters back home who need to know what happened”.In a statement released on July 22nd, Médecins Sans Frontières said its teams had helped survivors from the Bafuloto boat in Mauritania four days before. “People who reached the shore” were experiencing “acute psychological distress” and “suffering from post-traumatic shock and psychosis, bone fractures, traumatic injuries, and hypothermia”. The organisation said the “severity of the testimonies and the scale of the loss of life also had a significant psychological impact on the teams involved in the response”. Survivors were “first assisted by fishermen, then by the Mauritanian coastguards, before being brought to the Mauritanian Red Crescent” in the coastal city of Nouadhibou, it said. Seven Gambians reportedly survived the Bafuloto boat journey, although at least one remained so unwell as to be unable to communicate a month later.We manage to meet two survivors, who have travelled back to The Gambia from Mauritania.Alhagie Ngie (27) speaks during two interviews – first on the phone and then at home with his mother. Mustapha Secka (29) speaks during an in-person interview. Alhagie Ngie is one of the 36 survivors of the deadly boat journey. Photograph: Sally Hayden Mustapha Secka also survived the boat journey. Photograph: Sally Hayden All the “agents” running the trip and the captains were Senegalese, the survivors say. Both say they paid the equivalent of about €580 each to two different Senegalese men, whose names we believe the Gambian authorities are aware of. . Secka believes there were 217 people on board, including about 20 women and five children, two of whom survived. Ngie estimates there were 25 women, one of whom was pregnant. He believes all of the children survived. He says there were five captains, three of whom survived. Secka remembers the captains as friendly. “They made us laugh,” he says. The captains controlled the communal food on the boat: gari flour, biscuits and couscous with milk powder. But many passengers had their own stashes: dates, sweet bread, sardines, kola nuts or cake pounded with peanut butter. The captain’s fair distribution meant a point was reached when they “begged” others for food, Secka says.He says the passengers and the captains had complained to the “agents” – who did not board the boat – that there was not enough water when they were leaving. Their first attempt to sail was a false start, and they returned to the mangroves before going again a day later. Most people on the boat were travelling because “their families are too poor,” he says. “I saw a lot of people in the boat and they told you their problems.” They included a sick man with skin rashes who wanted to “cure himself”.The communal food had already run out, Secka says, when, after about nine days, a captain announced they were some 50km from Spain. Ngie remembers it as after seven days, and that the man said a Spanish rescue was coming. He says passengers started celebrating, even pouring water on themselves. Secka says people shared their remaining personal food stocks. But “that 50km became hundreds of kilometres and became days”.The boat set off from Bafuloto in the West Coast Region of The Gambia. Photograph: Sally Hayden “The captain didn’t know where he was. He’d say very soon we’d arrive in Spain. We drove day and night,” says Ngie. “The fuel started running low, the food. Everybody got confused. It got to a point where we said we couldn’t go further, let them turn and get help. The captain said: ‘Let’s go to Morocco; he didn’t know where he was going’.”After nine days, Secka says, the first engine broke. The second engine had a problem 16 days in. The compass developed issues too. They had a makeshift sail that put them at the mercy of the wind, which did not seem to be taking them anywhere. They had a satellite phone, but calls for help went unanswered and then the phone stopped working.It was day 13 or 14 when people started dying, says Secka. At least nine dead bodies were thrown in the sea each day after that, he says. He could see it happen from where he sat at the top of the boat. The captains would pray as they did it.When the deaths started, Secka says, passengers still helped each other for a while. “I used to help people who were struggling when I knew without that they would die. I saw other people rendering the same food or help to people in the boat.” He recalls one man clutching his stomach. The man later threw himself into the sea. “Most of them before they die they hallucinate; they go mad,” Secka says. Ngie says one of his friends threw himself into the sea after announcing he was going to the shop.[ Pope Leo appeals to world leaders for more humane treatment of migrantsOpens in new window ]Night became frightening, Secka says. When darkness fell “the only things you’d hear is: ‘they’re biting me’, or someone dying”. Both survivors say there was an area at the bottom of the boat with seawater in it, which they were worried they could be dragged into. Ngie had a nightmare about being taken there.Ngie says he tried to fight off someone who began sucking the blood of a “boy” who “later died”.“I attacked him but I couldn’t overpower him, the captain came with the cutlass and he ran,” he says. “I can’t explain everything that happened in the boat. What happened, there is too much. When you don’t have food … You can’t imagine.”Secka says he was wearing “juju”, or charms, as protection. If someone attacked, he would hit the person with a charm. But he believes he saw other people attempting to suck blood from the necks of fellow passengers. He estimates at least seven people could have died from this. “At that time they weren’t thinking of anything, only how to survive,” he says. Anyone who fell could be a victim, he says. “You couldn’t do anything to them because you didn’t have strength. They will put their mouth on your body and suck your blood.” The top of the boat, where he was, was safer, he says, although sometimes he’d feel a tug at his leg. All of those guilty of this ended up dying too, he says.Each of us were tired, frail, we couldn’t get up … Before we reached the port two more had died— Alhagie NgieNgie says anyone suspected of “witchcraft” could be tied up and thrown in the sea. “If the captain sees you doing certain behaviours in the boat they become suspicious. Hallucinating, saying things, odd behaviours … They are afraid that your single action may sacrifice everyone; they will not allow that.” At some point, Secka says, the passengers became convinced a Malian woman was a witch and was deliberately preventing the engine from working. Secka says the woman even announced this to those on board. “We were very confused at that time,” he says. “The captain told his assistants to catch her and throw her and bundle her in the sea ... After that the machine refused to start any more.” Sources in Mauritania said one man was detained in relation to this death. By that point, those still alive could only drink seawater. Secka believes they had been at sea for at least 20 days. There was a mechanic on board, who attempted to fix the engine and briefly got it to start, but he did not know which direction to go and then he died, Secka says. Those who were left realised the remaining fuel had mixed with seawater, rendering it unusable. The same day the mechanic died, a captain’s wife tried to pee in the sea but fell overboard. Two captains died trying to rescue her, both Secka and Ngie say. Secka says her breastfeeding baby lasted two more days before dying too, and Ngie says the couple’s two other children survived the trip, after being minded by a Gambian woman.During their time at sea, Secka says, “we saw a lot of Mauritanian fishermen. We waved but they didn’t help us.” At one point, a fisherman threw spoiled fish into the water, and those on the boat salvaged and ate it. On their last day, they appealed to men on a fishing vessel who passed them water, milk powder and biscuits, and finally called for help. Ngie thinks it was on the 19th day that they found the fishermen who called for help. “Each of us were tired, frail, we couldn’t get up … Before we reached the port two more had died.” They spent the next week in hospital. Survival is “not about fitness, bravery; it’s only about God,” says Ngie.Sitting close to him, Ngie’s mother Ida Jeng says her son will not try to reach Europe again. “God says never force anything that is not your luck,” she announces, half to him. Jeng’s uncle died trying to reach Europe many years earlier. When she found out what happened to her son, she says, she “didn’t sleep at night. I cried like a madman. He is my everything.”[ Europe can’t have it both ways on migrationOpens in new window ]Ngie was in serious pain when he returned. “You wouldn’t have recognised him,” says his mother. As his strength comes back, he has taken on the difficult duty of telling family members about their loved ones’ fates. Many do not believe his story, calling him again and again, he says. Before Jallow’s death, Ngie says, Jallow talked about his children, saying he wanted to return to them. Nget had become “confused” at the end, he says, and Colley died at the “last minute”.Ngie says the agents who organised the boat should not get away with it, that they deserve “life imprisonment”. One family he knows lost five boys and young men, the eldest just 20 years old. “They’re all the same family from the same area … If I sit and think about them, it’s too stressful.”He says he needs help now: capital to restart his life so he can begin working again.Secka’s skin is still damaged and peeling. More than a month after being rescued, he was only beginning to move around again. He credits his survival partially to how little seawater he drank, maybe three sips a day. Ngie, too, says he drank very little. If the rescue had taken any longer, both are certain they would have died as well. Still, Secka would try the journey again. “If I had a way to travel I would travel. Even if it’s a boat and I had money, today I would go. The country is very hard. I want to work, any job that man can do.”Whether they see leaving as a goal or not, most of those interviewed for this investigation want to see accountability. “If they see [the agent] they should arrest him and prosecute him because a lot of people died,” says Jallow’s nephew Zakaria.“Everybody knows that the ‘back way’ is a risky journey; you either make it or you die,” says Nget’s brother. But, he says: “Of course we want to know the one responsible … You cannot risk somebody’s life just like that.”This reporting was supported by the Simon Cumbers Media Fund