Tailor Abdoulaye is also keen to make the dangerous crossing, but he’s still having some doubts. Friends are telling him not to go, that it’s too risky. The journey takes many days out on the high seas to avoid western African nations’ coastguard patrols. Many don’t survive; their ramshackle boats sink or they drift off course and die of thirst. In cemeteries on the Canary Islands, there are more and more graves of unknown victims. The smallest island in the archipelago has taken in an especially high number of migrants from Africa. Mayor Juan Miguel Padron says his island is struggling to cope with the growing number of people who leave their homes searching for a better life. A report by Tessa Clara Walther.