The Missing

Text Lori Hinnant and Bram Janssen | Video Bram Janssen

An Associated Press tally has documented more than 56,800 migrants dead or missing worldwide since 2014 _ almost double the number found in a United Nations tally, the world’s only official attempt to try to count them.

Photos Nariman El-Mofty | Text Lori Hinnant

The Mediterranean has been robbing Tunisia of its young, who try to sail to Europe and disappear along the way. The sea also washes up the bodies of migrants from elsewhere who had hoped north Africa would be their last stop on the way to Europe.

Photos, Video and Text Bram Janssen

South Africa is a magnet for migrants from the rest of Africa, who go there to escape poverty. But thousands end up as dead bodies that go unnamed and unclaimed.

Text Christine Armario | Photos Ariana Cubillos | Video Marko Alvarez

For nine days, a team of Associated Press journalists documented the ordeal of Venezuelan migrants as they braved armed criminals, cold weather and hunger along a 2,700-mile route from their collapsing nation to Peru.

Text Christine Armario | Photos Ariana Cubillos | Video Marko Alvarez

Before fleeing Venezuela, Sandra Cadiz asked her daughter if she wanted to use their spare money to buy a new pair of shoes for school or to try and reach Peru by foot. “Let’s go, mama,” the 10-year-old said. “I’ll walk in my broken shoes.” This is the story of their nearly 2,700 mile journey. 

Photos Jerome Delay | Text Lori Hinnant

Algeria’s government has expelled over 13,000 migrants in the Sahara Desert in the past 14 months, giving them little choice but to walk to safety across the border to Niger or Mali or die trying. 

Photos and text Jerome Delay

The only certainty about the man is that he was expelled from Algeria with thousands of others before ending up in a transit camp in Arlit, Niger.

Photos and text Jerome Delay 

Once a well-worn roadway for off-road connoisseurs, the Trans-Sahara Highway is now a favored path for migrants heading north in hopes of a better life _ and more recently thousands who are being expelled south from Algeria.