The Cruel Road North

Anonymous wooden crosses mark the graves of the migrants buried in a small town in northern Colombia. For more than a year, all that was known about the 10 children and nine adults was that they came from Africa and drowned in the Caribbean trying to reach North America. Now, after a nine-month investigation, their names and their stories can finally be told.

Angelina escaped death in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the jungles of Colombia. Jean Pierre Ilunga fled the DRC after his parents were killed. Gedeao Makambo lost his daughter on his years-long journey from Angola. All of them longed for safety in America; all of them ended up in a Mexican migrant camp. Now free, all of them are still hoping to cross the final frontier into the U.S.

In October 2019, a barge sank in the waters off southern Mexico. Maxcellus, from Cameroon, managed to crawl onto a beach. At least three other people drowned, including his compatriot Emmanuel. He is the only one whose body was found and repatriated to his relatives, after they paid to transport it more than 10,000 kilometers back home.

‘Mama Africa’ is the nickname given to several women who help migrants travelling through Latin America. Ana Yansy López Martínez, in Costa Rica, is among them. She now lives under house arrest, accused of being part of a network that smuggles people into Nicaragua. She denies this, however, saying she just wants to “help” the migrants and guide them on their way.

Van Dung Nguyen, from Vietnam, was on his way to the United States when he was arrested at El Salvador’s international airport with a false passport in late 2018. That was the start of a long chain of mistranslations, postponements and unexplained court decisions that has seen him locked up for over a year. He is still in jail in El Salvador, waiting.

Colette can’t remember what day she fled Cameroon with her two daughters. After a year of travelling through 11 countries she finally reached her sister’s house in July 2018. She now lives in Maryland, but she hasn’t found the American dream she hoped for. “Living in the USA is so tough!” she said. “All the suffering we went through, for this?”