The Missing: A Father’s Wait  

Synopsis: Cheikh Fofana, a Senegalese man, waits for news of his son, who disappeared while migrating to Europe. He last heard from his son Tidiane in 2015, when was about to take a makeshift boat. Fofana warned him to wait for a big boat that might withstand the force of the sea. Surviving a vast ocean is nothing like escaping a tree-lined river, he said. “I told him not to take a makeshift boat, it’s very dangerous, it’s risky because the sea has no branches,” Fofana said. His son, responded he had waited too long to cross already, but promised, “I’ll try to take the big boat.” That was the last time they spoke. He vanished along with two other young men from the town. His body could be among hundreds that were pulled from the Mediterranean’s deadliest shipwreck in living memory, but Fofana’s chances of learning his son’s fate diminish as the political will in Europe to identify dead or missing migrants weakens.

Publisher: The Associated Press

Publication Date: December 20, 2018

Link to Publication: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6woNBSToLQ

Video Footage: Bram Janssen, AP Archive

Editing: Nat Castañeda

Reporting: Lori Hinnant, Bram Janssen

Script: Bram Janssen, Nat Castañeda, Raghuram Vadarevu

This video was part of AP’s yearlong investigation into the hidden toll of migration: https://apimagesblog.com/the-missing-page/