Missing between Algeria and Spain: One man's odyssey to find his younger brother

A group of 24 people met at 5am on September 14 at the Ain Taya beach east of Algiers, the capital of Algeria. They were planning to reach Palma, in Mallorca, by boat in 14 hours.

"After 24 hours, we did not hear anything from them. And 48 hours after, we still had not heard anything from them, and since then, they have been missing," Amine M., brother of one of the missing people, told Catalan News in Barcelona.

Amine lives in Lyon, France, and he traveled to Barcelona recently to get "any new information or at least leave my DNA in case they found a body on the beach."

On the boat were his 26-year-old brother, Alla Eddine, and 23 other people, including two minors and one person with a disability. They all left Algeria for Mallorca, which, in a straight line, is just 270 kilometers away.

Most of their families "did not know about their sons and that they would take the boat that day, because they kept it a secret," Amine explained.

"None of them could contact his family or send a message or say he is alive, so we have no sign," he said.

A few days later, he traveled to Palma to file a missing person report and speak with the Spanish National Police, the Civil Guard, and the Red Cross delegation in the Mallorcan capital.

"I gave them a description, I gave them pictures of the missing people that I could collect, the list of the names of the 24 young people." When he asked for a DNA test in case his "brother was found dead, instead of alive," police officers on site told him he needed to wait.

"I waited for two months, and now I have come to Barcelona to do the DNA test, because I could not do it in Palma," he added, after finally being able to achieve his goal. Although he first went to the Spanish National Police station in the Catalan capital, he was sent to the scientific unit of the Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra police.

"I think the procedures are a bit complicated," he said. "Maybe they do not deal with this kind of case daily." However, Amine M. was relieved to be able to take the DNA test because "that was the most difficult part to do in Palma."

"They told me you need to wait until we contact you, and I waited for weeks and weeks, and contacted them, and they told me to just wait, and I contacted the Red Cross, and they also told me that I had to wait," he told Catalan News.

"But I cannot wait anymore because every time I follow the news, I see there is a new body found, a corpse found on the shore," he added. "Maybe my brother could be one of them. Maybe it's my brother's body."

Families back home

Family members of the 24 people trying to reach Spain created a WhatsApp group to coordinate and to stay informed. "My mother is devastated," Amine told Catalan News.

"She is sad, she cried, but at least she is patient," he added, as his mother still has hope that "perhaps he could be alive somewhere."

"Even if he is not, she wants to get his body back at least."

Amine M., after undergoing the DNA test, expects to "have feedback," even if authorities find his brother's corpse, although he hopes "he is still alive, but it is a 50-50 chance, as it has now been two months since he went missing."

"If he is alive, that would be good, but if he is not, I would not like to live like this, waiting for years. I would like to know if he is dead and get his body back home," he said.

One of his demands is to simplify the process and make it "easier for families" to bring their loved ones as a DNA sample requires "to show documents and to prove them," including meetings with the Spanish and Algerian Foreign Affairs ministries services, and both embassies.

"It is a long process and cannot be done overnight," he explained.

He calls himself lucky as he lives in France and was able to travel to Palma and Barcelona for the procedure. But many families in Algeria are still waiting for answers, as many of these procedures "need to be done back home," and the international coordination is complicated.

Buying their own boat

Alla Eddine was part of a self-organized group. They all bought a used boat to cross on their own, as his brother explained.

They bought the boat and an engine, as "it did not cost them as much as the organizers or the smugglers charge," Amine told this media outlet.

He said that it would probably have been "more efficient if they had traveled with smugglers, as it is more guaranteed that you will make it to the other side of the sea."

However, as in the case of his brother and the rest of the young people, if they "are amateurs, they do not know the sea, it will cost them less to do the trip by themselves, but it is more risky."

They decided to cross in a 6.2-meter-long boat with a 75-horsepower engine, and he is not sure whether they had enough equipment. "I do not know if they had a GPS or not, but they had their phones with them," he said.

Two months after his brother went missing, Amine was able to undergo a DNA test that Mossos d'Esquadra will then send to Spain's National Police database in case there is any match.

However, he is well aware that family members of Boukraâ Kheireddine, Rafea Imad Eddine, Ben Chehib Sami, Oussama Djelmi, Idriss Belhour, or Reghi Issak, to name a few of the other boat passengers, were not as lucky.