Pape Dieye tells folks it is not well worth the danger to attempt to take a ship from Senegal to Europe.

Ricci Shryock for NPR

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Ricci Shryock for NPR

Pape Dieye tells folks it is not well worth the danger to attempt to take a ship from Senegal to Europe.

Ricci Shryock for NPR

SAINT-LOUIS, Senegal — By day, Saint-Louis native Pape Dieye is a ship captain-turned-tour information for a flowery resort that caters to Westerners. By evening, he’s a sought-after captain who vehemently turns down requests to smuggle human beings throughout the ocean.

The variety of folks making an attempt to make the perilous journey from West Africa to Spain has risen in recent years, and so has the demand for captains from Saint-Louis.

Those in search of to go away are largely younger and male, pushed by the shortage of jobs and a promise of alternative on the opposite aspect of the ocean.

Captains in Saint-Louis have spent centuries mastering the ocean. They have constructed a status for expertly navigating harmful waters and massive waves of their lengthy, slender boats referred to as pirogues.

“Because [captains] know the sea, they can pass when the wave is so big. They have a lot of experience,” Dieye says.

Dieye can inform how deep the water is simply by the colour of the floor. He would not use GPS or a phone. He is aware of discover a college of fish with nothing however his fishing line. And he isn’t bothered by towering ocean waves or the black of evening.

“They have to [teach] you how to drive a pirogue in the night because it is so dark,” he says. “Because other times we [don’t have the] technology. You have to know the stars.”

Dieye says learning Saint-Louis’ topography can be a should.

“You have to know how to pass the mouth where the river and sea meet,” he says.

The island rests alongside an estuary the place the Atlantic Ocean and the Senegal River come collectively, and Dieye thinks for this reason his hometown produces these giant and highly effective waves.

Rising seas threaten Guet Ndar and Saint-Louis in Senegal, prompting some to journey elsewhere seeking houses and work.

Ricci Shryock for NPR

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Ricci Shryock for NPR

Rising seas threaten Guet Ndar and Saint-Louis in Senegal, prompting some to journey elsewhere seeking houses and work.

Ricci Shryock for NPR

When folks ask him to captain a ship to Europe, Dieye says no.

“I didn’t want to take people in danger, because when a person dies, it is my responsibility,” he says.

“I didn’t want to take some people that didn’t know the sea.”

Long days within the sea can result in fatigue, seasickness, and even hallucinations. Having little to no expertise on the ocean can increase these dangers. People who tried the boat journey to Europe informed NPR that passengers on their boat skilled psychotic episodes.

Years in the past, one in every of Dieye’s associates knocked on his door at midnight. He was going to Spain, regardless of Dieye’s warnings.

“I try to address him not to go, to stay here. But he was so angry with me,” Dieye says.

His refusal makes lots of people offended. He informed his buddy what he tells everybody: that it was not well worth the danger. He fears folks may die at sea, or he could possibly be arrested making an attempt to smuggle them into Europe.

“I work here; I have my family, my life is here,” he says.

Dieye is a self-described optimist. He thinks issues will get higher, particularly if younger folks make investments time in their very own nation.

“With the effort they made in order to go to Spain, if they stayed here, with good training for example, they can succeed in something,” he says.

For now, he hopes to share this message with anybody who listens.