a year 2021 marked by migration crises

The embrace between a volunteer of the Spanish Red Cross and an exhausted Senegalese migrant after reaching one of the beaches of Ceuta (Spain), is one of the striking images of this year. “He was desperate because he thought one of his friends was dead. He was inconsolable.”, testifies Luna Reyes, volunteer of the Red Cross.

Last May, the Moroccan authorities relaxed border control, leaving nearly 8,000 exile candidates to rush to Ceuta. Last November, thousands of Afghan, Syrian and Kurdish migrants were stranded at the gates of the European Union, at the Polish border. And when the land route seems dead end, some take risks by sea, on makeshift boats. On November 24, 2021, 27 people died after the sinking of an inflatable boat. According to the International Organization for Migrants, more than 1,700 people died crossing the Mediterranean in 2021.