The EU is disrupting these migration routes and outsourcing its border control responsibilities to countries in the Sahara and Sahel regions.

Christian and David try not to fall off the back of the pick-up. The vehicle is being driven at breakneck speed through the desert by smugglers. Like hundreds of thousands of people before them, the two Nigerians are traveling from West Africa to the Libyan Mediterranean coast. They’re hoping to reach Europe and the promise of a better life.

In a bid to stem irregular migration, the European Union is ramping up spending on migration, asylum and border management to tens of billions of euros. Some of the money funds migration partnerships with African countries. The aim is to halt people well before they reach Europe’s external borders. Local security forces are under orders to stop migrants in the desert, effectively making the Sahara a key arena in Europe’s border policy. But many of these desert regions have limited governance. Smuggling networks, human traffickers and armed groups operate there with general impunity.
The documentary joins migrants on the most dangerous leg of their trip: traversing the Sahara. An investigative journey on a migration route that reveals the full reach of Europe’s border policies - and the price paid by those desperate to reach the continent.

Only those who’ve survived the traffickers and torturers, who haven’t been imprisoned and deported, reach the Mediterranean. And crossing the sea brings a whole set of new dangers.
 

 

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