'No one can stop them': African migrants aim for Spain's Canary Islands

Mohamed Fane migrant from Senegal who arrived in wooden boat to the Spanish island of Gran Canaria looks at a boat at a cemetery of abandoned wooden boats in Arinaga. Spain, August 4, 2022. REUTERS/Borja Suarez

GRAN CANARIA (Reuters) - Standing in a cemetery of abandoned boats, Mohamed Fane picks a West African franc off the floor and shudders at the traumatic memory of his voyage from Senegal to the Canary Islands.

After an arduous overland trip and months waiting, smugglers shepherded the 33-year-old carpenter into a flimsy wooden vessel with two dozen others to sail from the Moroccan town of Dakhla - but it ran out of fuel far from the Spanish archipelago.