Youssef*, a 26-year-old Algerian fisherman and seasonal worker on the Algerian coast, knew the sea well. He was also a strong swimmer. Despite understanding the risks, he joined 12 others on a small motorboat in late November, departing from a beach in Algiers in hopes of reaching Alicante, Spain. "He was aware of the dangers," said his cousin, who wished to remain anonymous. "But he had so many friends who left that way and succeeded."

Youssef never made it to his destination: Alicante. Just five kilometers at sea, water began leaking into his boat, destabilizing it. Then there was an altercation with the person driving the boat, and the vessel flipped. "Everyone fell into the water, including a family with a 6-year-old girl and a baby," his cousin said. The Algerian coastguards were notified, but they didn’t possess the correct localization for the shipwreck. The shipwreck victims, who didn’t have life jackets, waited nearly six hours in the open sea. Youssef made the little girl climb onto a can of petrol.

When a group of young people, aware of the vessel’s departure, finally managed to find the site of the shipwreck, it was already too late. The baby and his mother were found dead. Youssef and two other passengers were missing. 

This shipwreck is not an isolated case. On the migratory route linking Algeria to Spain, tragedies are "increasingly frequent", and "corpses appear on the [Spanish] coast several days after [...] the rescue services have been alerted", wrote the Civil Guard in a document consulted by the media Levante. At least 517 people died on this route in 2024, according to the latest report from the NGO Caminando Fronteras published on December 26. There were 464 deaths in 2022, and 191 in 2021. 

In 2024, 26 boats "completely disappeared" at sea, with all their passengers. These statistics make the Algerian route, in the Mediterranean, the second deadliest route, after the Canaries route.  

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Growing migration to Spain’s Balearic Islands 

After several years of being used by migrants, the route from Algeria to Spain has become increasingly popular since 2021, according to Caminando Fronteras. Passengers pay between 2,000 and 4,000 euros, sometimes more, for a trip on a small motorboat which is completely inadequate for the open sea. In 2024, 13,952 migrants were recorded taking this route.

Departures take place from Oran, Mostaganem, Tipaza or Algiers and migrants sail towards the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Sometimes they are rescued off the coast of Almeria, Cartagena, Murcia or Alicante.

Yet since 2022, the Algerian route has been moving further and further east toward the Balearic Islands, an area that is less monitored. On December 29, 18 people reached the island of Formentera, and they were later joined by 74 migrants who arrived in three separate boats a few hours later. A total of 5,793 people have arrived on the Balearic Islands since January 1, 2024 – an increase of 154.3 percent compared to the 2,278 migrants who arrived in the archipelago in 2023, according to figures from the Spanish news agency EFE.

This route, which has fewer rescue services, is just as "dangerous", according to Caminando Fronteras. "The longer distances and greater risk of getting lost and ending up in the deepest parts of the Mediterranean made the crossing more dangerous for migrants taking this route."

The profiles of the "harragas", literally "border burners", who take this route, are increasingly vulnerable. The report by Caminando Fronteras noted the regular presence of "teenage migrants who travel alone" while seeking to join family in Europe. These minors are usually from Algeria, but there are increasing numbers of young sub-Saharans, Syrians, or Palestinians also embarking from the Algerian coast. "Although the majority continue to be Algerian, 40 percent of the people using this route now come from other regions," according to the Spanish NGO.

Young children accompanying their mothers in transit are also increasingly numerous. "Many of them had previously passed through Libya and Tunisia before being pushed back into the desert", wrote the NGO.

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'No future'

In recent years, the makeshift boats leaving Algeria have often been filled up with entire families. Saïd Salhi, vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH), described this phenomenon in October 2021 as "an unprecedented family 'harga’ [migration in French]", rooted in the economic pessimism weighing down on the country since 2014 with the fall of oil prices.

"In Algeria, there is no war. But youth unemployment, even for graduates, pushes most of them to leave. In this country, if you don't know anyone to help you, you have no future," said Youssef's cousin. "And when you see most of the people you know leaving the country, finding happiness elsewhere, while you continue to struggle despite the years; leaving becomes your only goal".

"Here, even young people with a degree can't find work, and they're bored," said Kenza last May, whose brother from Tizi Ouzou disappeared at sea. "Hamza said that life in Algeria was tiring. So when he entered the sociology department at his university of Sociology, he quickly applied for various student visas. Each time, they were refused."

Youssef had also initially considered leaving home "through a path of legal migration", upon the advice of his family. The young man had applied for visas for the European Union, Canada and the United Kingdom. But, like in Hamza’s case, none of them were granted.

Youssef's mother currently "thinks he is in prison in Spain".

"They didn't tell her what really happened because she is in very poor health", said Youssef’s cousin. The youth in the neighborhood are aware of Youssef’s death and that of the other passengers. "The day after the tragedy, many embarked on a boat."

*The first name has been changed upon his cousin’s request

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