‘I sit alone and talk to myself’: a family ripped apart by Europe’s migration crisis

Thousands of people try each year to reach Europe by boat. For two sisters and their families, the perilous journey led to a tragedy that still continues. Illustration: Laurie Avon/The Guardian

Each morning Zahia leaves the home she shares with her four grandchildren in the Algerian coastal city of Bou Ismaïl and heads to her job cleaning a primary school. For the past year she has lived alone with them, after the death of both her daughters ripped their family apart.

Their tragic story started on 5 October 2021, when Zahia’s youngest daughter, Feryal, then 23, decided to leave Algeria with her husband, Aissa, and their son Amjad, aged 2. At the time neither had jobs – although Aissa worked occasionally as a horseback tour guide – but they were both determined to improve their lives.