AP Follows African Migrants' Trek to Saudi Arabia

The AP took powerful, intimate reporting on the dangerous journey of Ethiopian migrants – crossing the sea to Yemen and then making their way to Saudi Arabia – and giving the package even more impact with stunning visual storytelling.

After Maggie Michael, Nariman El-Mofty and Maad al-Zekri followed Ethiopian migrants across Djibouti and Yemen, they spun an all-formats tale that hooked readers from the very start, weaving together the differing fates of two migrants – one who succeeded in his long walk to Saudi Arabia, the other who failed, left stranded and hopeless along the way.

.@AP team followed thousands of Ethiopian migrants as they trekked through desert, across sea, through warzone. Read their stories: https://t.co/zXcH690MlX
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 14, 2020

The story – an installment of the occasional series, “Outsourcing Migrants” – demonstrated the scope of the AP’s reach, covering a little-noticed but rapidly growing route for migrants, exploring what motivates these men and women to risk their lives and making readers care about people to whom they would not otherwise have been introduced.

Ethiopian migrant Mohammed Eissa, second left, walks on a highway with boys he met on the way, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Djibouti, July 12, 2019. This was his third attempt to reach Saudi Arabia to find work; the previous trips ended in deportation. Eissa had left behind his wife, nine sons, and a daughter. His wife cares for his elderly father. His children work the farm growing vegetables, but harvests are unpredictable: "If there's no rain, there's nothing." Image by AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty. Ethiopia, 2020.

Ethiopian migrant Mohammed Eissa, 35, walks along a highway, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Djibouti, July 12, 2019. Eissa picked up rides from his home to the border with Djibouti, then walked. His second day there, he was robbed of his money at knifepoint. The next day he walked six hours in the wrong direction, back toward Ethiopia, before he found the right route again. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2020.

Mohammed Eisa, a 35-year-old Ethiopian farmer, and other migrants he met along the way, take shelter inside a damaged shipping container on the side of a highway, near Lac Assal Djibouti, July 14, 2019. Many migrants have made the journey to Saudia Arabia multiples in what has become an unending loop of arrivals and deportations. Eissa is among them; this is his third trip to Saudi Arabia. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

Mohammed Eissa, 35, a farmer from Ethiopia, rests inside a shipping container on the side of a highway, near Lac Assal, Djibouti, July 14, 2019. Many migrants have made the journey multiple times in what has become an unending loop of arrivals and deportations. Eissa is among them. But he slipped across the Saudi border on Aug. 10, 39 grueling days since he had left home in Ethiopia. After walking another 100 miles, he reached a major town where he found work watering trees on a farm. Image by AP Photo/ Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

A sandstorm gusts, July 12, 2019, over a road about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Djibouti, where African migrants walk en route to the shore and passage to Yemen with smugglers. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

Ethiopian migrant boys ages 13 to 16, who crossed into Djibouti at night, rest in an abandoned one-floor, brick house in Ali Sabeih, Djibouti, July 11, 2019. Migrants take shelter here until early morning to continue their journey. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

Ethiopian migrants eat spaghetti as they take shelter under a tree, in Obock, Djibouti, July 15, 2019. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. June, 2019.

Ethiopian migrants stand on a hill at a slum in Dikhil, Djibouti, where they took shelter after entering the country, July 12, 2019, on their journey to Yemen. Most hope to eventually reach Saudi Arabia. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

Sixteen-year old Ethiopian migrants from left, Safeya, Ikram, and Hamdiya, pose for a portrait, July 12, 2019, at a slum in Dikhil, Djibouti, where they took shelter after entering the country on their journey intended to take them to Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The 100-mile (120-kilometer) trip across Djibouti to the water can take days. Many migrants end up in the country's capital, living in slums and working to earn money for the crossing. Young women often are trapped in prostitution or enslaved as servants. Image by AP Photo / El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

Ethiopian Tigray migrants in Obock, Djibouti, stand in line to receive water brought by smugglers, as they take shelter under trees at the last stop of their journey before leaving by boat for Yemen in the evening, July 15, 2019. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

From left, Ethiopian migrants Medres, 15; Willo, 15, laughing; Ikram Abdi, 17; and Hades, 16, pose for portraits in Obock, Djibouti, mid-July 2019, at the last stop of their journey before leaving in the evening by smugglers' boat for the eight-hour trip to Yemen. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

Hades, 16, an Ethiopian Tigray migrant, makes a phone call to her mother in Ethiopia as she takes shelter under trees at the last stop of her journey before leaving by boat to Yemen in the evening, in Obock, Djibouti, July 15, 2019. Hades did not know that there is a civil war in Yemen. She was told by her guide that women are safe in homes of their employers in Saudi Arabia and that she would not face deportation. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

Ethiopian migrant Fatma, right, braids her friend's hair as they take shelter in Obock, Djibouti, at the last stop of their journey before leaving by boat for Yemen in the evening, July 15, 2019. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

Ethiopian migrants are led by smugglers in Obock, Djibouti, July 14, 2019, prior to crossing the Bab el-Mandeb strait to Yemen. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

An abandoned bra lies on the beach on Obock, Djibouti, where Ethiopian migrants are gathered by smugglers for boat trips to Yemen, July 15, 2019. The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration says that the number of women making the trip jumped from nearly 15,000 in 2018 to more than 22,000 in 2019, while the number of girls quadrupled to 8,360. Despite the many risks - smugglers' exploitation, rape, hunger, drowning - they are undaunted. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

The moon shines on the beach, July 14, 2019, in Obock, Djibouti, where smugglers take Ethiopian migrants by boat to Yemen. The trek through Djibouti ends on a long, virtually uninhabited coast outside the town of Obock, the shore closest to Yemen. Here migrants would stay, sometimes for several days, and wait for their turn on the boats that every night cross the narrow Bab el-Mandeb strait to Yemen. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

Smugglers ferry Ethiopian migrants in a boat from the uninhabited coast outside the town of Obock, Djibouti, for the trip to Yemen, July 15, 2019. Many of the migrants had never seen the sea before. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Djibouti, 2019.

Ethiopian migrants disembark from a boat on the shores of Ras al-Ara, Lahj, Yemen, July 26, 2019, after being smuggled across the Bab el-Mandeb strait from Djibouti. Loaded into a 50-foot-long open boat in darkness, the migrants were warned not to move or talk during the eight-hour crossing. Most had never seen the sea before. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

Ethiopian Tigray migrants stand in line as they are counted by smugglers after crossing the Bab el-Mandeb strait from Djibouti to the coastal village of Ras al-Ara in Lahj, Yemen, July 25, 2019. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

Migrants who arrived by sea are moved by smugglers to a makeshift shelter, called a "hosh" in Arabic, in Ras al-Ara , Lahj, Yemen, July 23, 2019. Most dream of reaching Saudi Arabia, and earning enough to escape poverty. But even if they reach their destination, there is not guarantee they can stay; the kingdom often expels them. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

Ethiopian migrant girls sit inside in a smugglers' lockup, known in Arabic as a "hosh," in Ras al-Ara, Lahj Yemen, July 25, 2019. Some lockups hold as many as 50 women at a time. The women stay here for several days until their transportation is ready. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

At the Ras al-Ara Hospital, Lahj, Yemen, Ethiopian migrant Dasto Mohammed lies on a gurney, July 26, 2019, after disembarking a boat and feeling sick from the journey. The flow of migrants to the beach is unending. On a single day, the AP witnessed seven boats arrive, each carrying more than 100 people. Mohammed came with her sister to Yemen to go to Saudi Arabia and seek work. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

Fatma and her husband Yacoub, migrants from Mali, carry their children as they make their way in Lahj, Yemen, July 23, 2019. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

Ethiopian migrant Eman Idrees shows her shoulder, July 21, 2019, with a wound from torture after being held and abused for eight months in a desert compound, known in Arabic as a "hosh," run by an Ethiopian smuggler in Ras al-Ara, Lahj, Yemen. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

A 20-year old Ethiopian migrant, a rape victim on her journey from Ethiopia to Yemen, tells her story at a home in Basa teen, a district of Aden, Yemen, July 20, 2019. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

A 25-year old Ethiopian migrant, who was physically abused on her journey from Ethiopia to Yemen, rubs her hands together as she tells her story at a home in Basateen, a district of Aden, Yemen, July 20, 2019. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

Ethiopian migrants take shelter July 21, 2019, in the 22nd May Soccer Stadium, destroyed by war, in Aden, Yemen. The stadium became a temporary refuge for thousands of migrants. At first, security forces used it to house migrants they captured in raids. Other migrants showed up voluntarily, hoping for shelter. The U.N. distributed food at the stadium and arranged voluntary repatriation back home for some. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

Hussein Asfar, 20, a migrant from Ethiopia who was a victim of physical abuse when he landed in Yemen, poses for a portrait in the 22nd May Soccer Stadium, destroyed by war and serving as a temporary refuge for thousands of migrants in Aden, Yemen, July 21, 2019. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

Yemenis make their way, Aug. 4, 2019, on a road in Dhale province, where African migrants cross to continue their journey through Yemen - and an active frontline between Houthi rebels and militiamen backed by the Saudi-led coalition. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

A man holds a weapon, July 30, 2019, in Jawf, Yemen, which is one of the areas where African migrants gather to continue their journey, most hoping to reach Saudi Arabia. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

African migrants make their way to work in Marib, Yemen, July 29, 2019. Migrants often interrupt their journey to finds jobs to make extra money. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

Ethiopian migrants chew qat, as they take shelter, Aug. 4, 2019, in a small shack at a qat market in Dhale province, one of the stops where migrants take shelter to continue their journey to Saudi Arabia, and an active frontline between Houthi rebels and militiamen backed by the Saudi-led coalition. Image by AP Photo / Nariman El-Mofty. Yemen, 2019.

From the start, the team engaged with the digital storytelling desk: Producer Natalie Castañeda and newsperson Peter Hamlin simultaneously planned the visual elements from the rich video and photo material as the story came together. Hamlin created an audio presentation using the audio messages sent by one of the migrants along the route. Drone footage at the top of the story gave a powerful opening image of migrants running across a bleak landscape.

Additionally, El-Mofty and Castañeda worked in concert to assemble a compelling photo essay that told the story the most vulnerable migrants – women and girls as young as 13. They endure hunger and exhaustion walking through deserts, the dangers of a sea crossing and, often, rape and torture at the hands of traffickers.

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They are fearless and unstoppable. As soon as they start their journey they take birth control. Ethiopian women and girls as young as 13 endure led hunger and exhaustion walking through deserts, the dangers of a sea crossing and, often, rape and torture at the hands of traffickers. @apnews @pulitzercenter

A post shared by Nariman El-Mofty (@narimanelmofty) on Feb 20, 2020 at 5:23am PST

The impactful storytelling garnered more than 26,000 page views on AP mobile, with high engagement. The package showcased how AP’s formats can work seamlessly together, from reporting on the ground to digital storytelling, producing dazzling results.

For their stunningly beautiful work that took AP’s audience on the migrants’ journey from the sun-blasted wastelands of Djibouti to the shores of the Gulf of Aden and beyond, Michael, El-Mofty, al-Zekri, Castañeda and Hamlin win AP’s Best of the Week honors.

AP Team Follows African Migrants Risking All to Reach Saudi Arabia