Adrift in the Atlantic, a boat of death and lost dreams

By RENATA BRITO and FELIPE DANA
Associated Press

BELLE GARDEN, Tobago (AP) — In 2021, at least seven boats appearing to be from northwest Africa washed up in the Caribbean and in Brazil. All carried dead bodies. For nearly two years, The Associated Press assembled puzzle pieces from across three continents to uncover the story of one of those doomed boats. In doing so, it revealed the people that the boat carried from hope to death. The AP investigation found that 43 young men from Mauritania, Mali, Senegal and possibly other West African nations boarded the boat. AP has identified 33 of them by name. The “ghost boat” was in part an unintended result of years of efforts by Europe to stop crossings on the Mediterranean Sea.