Atlantic, where the long route and harsh weather easily spell disaster, a nonprofit that conducts aerial surveillance told AFP during a recent mission. AFP rode along with the organisation Humanitarian Pilots Initiative (HPI) as it raced to locate several missing pirogues -- long, rickety canoes -- that had left The Gambia but never showed up at their final destination. The mission: search an area larger than Switzerland, from hundreds of metres (yards) in the air, with an aim of rendering aid before it is too late.

"People could be dead or dying from dehydration, heat stroke or any other conditions," pilot Omar El Manfalouty told AFP. Migrants departing from west Africa and travelling up the Atlantic are usually trying to reach Europe via the Canary Islands off northwest Africa. The Spanish archipelago is the jumping off point for their continued journey onward to the European continent.

With many recent departures taking place from further south in The Gambia and Guinea, migrants are now spending longer at sea and facing more hardships. More than 3,000 migrants died in 2025 while attempting to reach Spain clandestinely, according to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras. While HPI has operated since 2016 in the central Mediterranean, it is a relative newcomer to the Atlantic. In the Mediterranean, it has already helped spot more than 1,000 boats, alerting international NGO rescue ships which then go and help.  AFP flew with HPI on its third mission in nine months in the Atlantic, riding for several days in the NGO's Beechcraft Baron 58 nicknamed "Seabird". (Bssnews)