How social media lures migrants into undertaking treacherous journeys

John Yang:

Many people use social media to document the things we most enjoy in our lives. Vacations, gourmet meals or even the latest TikTok dance. But it can also be used to influence people who want to seek better lives, often through dangerous journeys that can have tragic results. This report was produced by the Students in the Global Reporting Program at the University of British Columbia and is narrated by Andrea Crossan.

Andrea Crossan, University of British Columbia (voice-over): These people are celebrating, celebrating making it to Europe, celebrating the end of a long journey and they hope the beginning of new lives. And for many, the first thing they do is reach for their phones to share their life changing news on apps like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.

Sana Dasilva, El Hierro Resident (through translator):

Yes, yes. Like people talk about it on social media like Facebook and all that. People are also on TikTok because it's what a lot of people use now.

Andrea Crossan (voice-over):

24-year-old Sana Dasilva is an amateur soccer player who lives on the Spanish Canary island of El Hierro. He saw videos like these when he was living in Senegal, hoping to someday make his way to Spain.

Sana Dasilva (through translator):

There are people on the journey who take video and show people that this path is fine and that they're not afraid, that no, it's not very dangerous, that any person can take this route.

Andrea Crossan (voice-over):

But what he discovered was very different. The videos rarely show the reality of the journey on these overloaded, barely seaworthy boats where urine and diesel fuel slosh around passengers' feet and violence is common.

When Sana Dasilva made his decision to climb aboard, he had no idea he was embarking on what the U.N. calls one of the most dangerous and deadliest migration routes in the world. For him, it turned into a weeklong nightmare.

Sana Dasilva (through translator):

I was throwing up. Everything I ate, I threw up. In the last three days, I didn't get up from where I sat, I slept there. I spent the night there because I had a bucket that had everything in it. I did not stand up for three days.

Andrea Crossan (voice-over):

Dasilva's boat was eventually spotted by the Spanish Coast Guard and towed into La Restinga, the main port on the island of El Hierro. The small island is popular with divers, but it's not a beach destination. It's the most southwesterly in the Canary Islands archipelago and is exposed to the powerful Atlantic waves.

In 2025, nearly 18,000 migrants like Dasilva arrived on the Canary Islands, mostly from West Africa. El Hierro receives more people every year than the island's entire population. Alexis Ramos is with the Red Cross and says most who arrive here are lucky to have survived the journey.

Alexis Ramos, Red Cross, El Hierro (through translator):

When we see it on TV, it might seem like a moment of calm or even of joy for the immigrants. But that's not the real because many people are coming on a single boat, many of them don't know how to swim. If at any moment the boat were to capsize, we would be facing a very serious problem.

Andrea Crossan (voice-over):

It's estimated that last year alone around 2,000 people went missing or died in the Atlantic while trying to reach Spain. The seas are rough and boats can run out of fuel or veer off course, says El Hierro official Elpidio Armas.

Elpidio Armas, Council President, El Hierro (through translator):

We're talking about people who have been found on the American coast mummified. Yes, yes. If they drift off course and don't find El Hierro, they end up in South America.

Andrea Crossan (voice-over):

The videos posted on social media focus on the dream of seeking a better life. But they're also used to organize illegal efforts to cross borders en masse. In 2024, a group of migrants used Facebook to organize a mass rush of the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Then at the set time, thousands of people ran towards the heavily guarded barbed wire topped fence and many managed to force their way into Europe.

But this is a dangerous gamble. Often border rushes end in fatalities and organizers are apprehended by authorities. Smugglers also use social media to find customers. UC Berkeley law professor Katerina Linos, an expert on migration, told us smugglers have learned how to leverage these platforms better than many official organizations.

Katerina Linos, U.C. Berkeley:

What we see is like a mode of transport, the names of key ports written in Arabic script as well as the English script, and a dollar sign indicating how much they should expect to pay for each stage.

So the information that smugglers provide is not necessarily accurate, but it is far more comprehensible than the information international organizations and governments provide.

Andrea Crossan (voice-over):

She told us that smugglers are also well practiced in convincing reluctant passengers to take a chance.

Katerina Linos:

And then there's a smuggler who will tell you, look, I've done this journey myself. I'm part of your community and I decided to help the community. I will help you get a haircut to look western. I will help you with all of the transition points. You will pay me some amount now and some amount at the end. Take the risk.

Andrea Crossan (voice-over):

Alexis Ramos hopes for the day when desperate people are no longer facing the economic and political challenges that motivate them to take these risks.

Alexis Ramos (through translator):

You dream of a time when the tents or the hospital at the port of La Rastinga no longer exist, because that would mean we have a better world and that these people no longer need to come in search of a new life.

Andrea Crossan (voice-over):

Sana Dasilva knows that pull and the lure of a new life he sees shared on social media. But he urges people to be aware of the dangers they could face.

Sana Dasilva (through translator):

I don't advise anyone to do this, but it's hard to stop someone whose life is so tough.

Andrea Crossan (voice-over):

And social media is filled with the faces of the missing. The many posts we found online from family and friends searching for loved ones that reveal the hidden, tragic realities of people who were convinced to embark on dangerous journeys only to disappear in the waters of the Atlantic. For PBS News Weekend and the Global Reporting Program, I'm Andrea Crossan.