Every hour can mean the difference between life and death for migrants lost at sea off the coast of West Africa. The vast Atlantic Ocean, unpredictable weather and long migration routes make rescue operations extremely difficult. For the nonprofit Humanitarian Pilot Initiative (HPI), searching for missing boats is often described as looking for a needle in a haystack. Using small aircraft to scan enormous stretches of ocean, the group relies on fragmentary tips about departure points, dates and passenger numbers. “If we receive information about a case, we can launch a flight,” said Samira, HPI’s tactical coordinator. “But the information is often incomplete, which makes locating the boat extremely challenging.”
Many migrants aim to reach the Canary Islands, about 120 kilometres off Africa’s northwest coast. However, tighter border controls have pushed departure points further south, including The Gambia, extending journeys to nearly 1,000 nautical miles. These crossings typically last around 10 days, assuming boats do not lose their way. “If a boat gets lost on day one, the search area is completely different from day eight,” Samira explained. “That’s what makes it almost impossible.” Some vessels have drifted thousands of kilometres, even reaching the Caribbean or South America, often with no survivors.
During one recent mission, HPI pilot Oumar El Manfalouty flew the NGO’s Beechcraft Baron 58, nicknamed Seabird, scanning waters roughly 800 kilometres south of the Canary Islands. “Conditions are very difficult high winds and strong waves,” he said. “Every hour counts. People could already be dead or dying from dehydration or heat stroke.” When HPI spots a boat, it immediately alerts nearby commercial ships and Spain’s maritime rescue service, Salvamento Marítimo, which then coordinates the rescue.
At a migrant reception centre in Las Palmas, 25-year-old Ousmane Ly reflected on his journey from Senegal via The Gambia. Despite visible salt-water burns and exhaustion, relief outweighed the pain. “We were covered with a tarpaulin day and night,” he said, explaining it was removed only when they were rescued after 10 days at sea. Ly noted that routes through Mauritania once took five to six days, but increased surveillance forced migrants to take longer, riskier paths. “We do this because we believe in ourselves and want to support our families,” he said. According to Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, more than 3,000 migrants died last year attempting to reach the Canary Islands underscoring the deadly stakes of these Atlantic crossings.
