Paper short abstract:

The paper analyzes how undocumented migrants cope with the death of their travel companions while attempting to cross to Spain by sea. It focuses on the situational, environmental, and political conditions that reshape both the rituals of death and the burial of the deceased person’s body.

Paper long abstract:

Dying at sea, especially through drowning, is a common occurrence in undocumented migration to Europe by sea (IOM 2024). Besides drowning, migrants often face death in boats for various reasons, such as dehydration, hypothermia, or disease. This compels those left behind to address the death of their travel companions while still in motion. In this paper, I analyze how Western African migrants manage the deaths of their fellow travelers during the sea crossing to Spain.

My research data suggests that the handling of the deceased person’s body is influenced by two types of urgencies and dangers posed to the other travelers on the boat, connected to the materiality of the deceased person’s body (e.g., Fontein 2018). In a boat at sea, there is no temporary place to store the body, and it needs to be dealt with quickly before it poses a sanitary and political threat to others.

Burial at sea has historically been a customary practice, especially in many seafaring communities (e.g., Steward 2001). However, in the context of undocumented migration, the necessity for such an act arises from the situational, environmental, and political conditions surrounding the death, compelling those left behind to take immediate action. The undocumented status of the travelers is then not only connected to the death itself but also reshapes both the rituals of death and the burial of the deceased person’s body.