Missing in the Mediterranean: You live until proven otherwise
Bureaucracy and lack of cooperation from countries of origin make it almost impossible for families to obtain information about migrants.
PalmAdel and Alilou left Algeria on two small boats in 2020 and 2022. There was no trace of the first boat or its passengers; the second boat was rescued without two people. Years later, their families still cling to the hope that they are still alive: no one can prove them wrong. This is the silence faced by the loved ones of thousands of migrants who have disappeared after taking to the sea in an attempt to reach Europe, as EFE was able to verify when speaking with Adel and Alilou's siblings.
On the Algerian route, whose final destination is mainly the Balearic Islands and also the southeastern Iberian Peninsula, at least 517 people died in 2024, according to the annual report by the Caminant Fronteres collective. Between January and May 2025, the number of deaths was 328, almost double the same period last year, when 175 people were shipwrecked.
Those who decide to embark on a small boat know perfectly well that the journey is dangerous. Therefore, some, in order to avoid worrying their families, hide their intentions and do not even say goodbye.
In 2024, 5,882 migrants arrived on the shores of the Balearic Islands irregularly, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior, and so far in 2025 at least 3,482 have arrived, according to the EFE count based on information provided by the Delegation.
The bodies of those who are shipwrecked have two possible fates: to be lost at sea forever or to be thrown ashore by the waves. If the latter occurs in Spain, bureaucracy and the lack of collaboration from the countries of origin make the process so difficult that very few bodies are actually identified and even fewer are collected.
The possibility of identification through DNA testing is so remote and communication with families so scarce that for many of them, without remains to watch over, the silence haunts them for life, while giving them wings to cling to any illusory scenario in which they are still alive.
In prison but alive
"Maybe they're in prison or in Tunisia," says Rachidi, with his back to the Mediterranean in the city of Aïn Taya – about 30 kilometers east of Algiers – from where his brother Adel set sail along with twenty other people on December 6, 2022. brother, although lately he had been letting it slip that he wanted to leave Algeria
After a couple of days without news of Adel, his family began to worry about him, but they called his friend Djalil and his phone was turned off. Rachidi said that the boys had boarded a boat bound for Spain with 21 people on board.
Adel was 21 years old when he decided to risk his life to reach Spain. "There's no hope. You can't have your own home in your country (...). You understand! Why are there people who arrive and are welcomed by the Red Cross, while others we know nothing about? There are thousands of people, thousands!" Rachidi exclaims, aware that most of his questions will never find answers. Askander, only 22 years old, now helps from Spain those who continue to search for their loved ones who disappeared at sea. He understands why they maintain faith that they are still alive, even if it means they are in prison: "I myself thought that for the first few months," he confesses.
Karima doesn't believe that her brother Alilou was shipwrecked with a friend. She says the versions of the nine survivors of that boat that left with eleven people are contradictory.
It was November 1, 2020, around two in the morning, a Saturday night in Aïn Benian—about 36 kilometers west of Algiers—and Alilou dreamed of reaching Alicante. According to the stories Karima has heard, about 50 kilometers off the Alicante coast, a breakdown left the boat adrift for several nights, until on November 7, Maritime Rescue rescued nine people. Two were missing. "There are two versions: one says that my brother jumped into the sea to retrieve his sweater and that his partner tried to help him when the current dragged him away; the second, that they saw a boat and swam to it because they were desperate after five days," she says.
In these five years, there have been no further clues, which has left room for a third version: "I think my brother and his friend were identified as the captains (of the boat)," says Karima, convinced that they were detained by the Spanish authorities. "We don't believe they drowned. They're lying," she concludes, without knowing if she's talking about herself or the hope of one day finding her brother alive.
