A reality check
The Long Road
A ten-stop journey north. Always free.
This mode shows irregular migration, including danger, kidnapping and death. It is serious and may be upsetting. You can step away at any time.
Traffickers promise Libya in two weeks. The Long Road follows the journey north across the desert, stop by stop, so players can see the real odds without taking the risk. There is no score and nothing to celebrate.
What the reports say
- IOM reports that deaths in the Sahara desert are believed to be at least as high as in the Mediterranean. Source: IOM Missing Migrants Project
- UNHCR tracks deaths and disappearances on Mediterranean crossings every year. Source: UNHCR Operational Data Portal
- IOM supports voluntary humanitarian return for migrants who want to go home from Libya and Niger. Source: IOM
- Posing as a migrant, journalist Fisayo Soyombo spent 47 days on this route: Kano, Zinder, Agadez, Dirkou, al Gatrun, Sabha, then Tripoli. Source: The PUNCH: Soyombo opens Sahara migration photo exhibition (28 Oct 2026)
- Traffickers tell migrants, "In one to two weeks, you will be in Libya." Soyombo calls it a lie. His own journey took weeks. Source: The PUNCH: Bad governance, traffickers pushing Nigerian youths to Libya - Soyombo (interview, 25 Oct 2026)
- Before a checkpoint they could not bribe, traffickers emptied migrants into the desert and told them to walk around it. Soyombo trekked for more than an hour, then for about two hours. Source: The PUNCH: Bad governance, traffickers pushing Nigerian youths to Libya - Soyombo (interview, 25 Oct 2026)
- In Sabha, his "connection man" abandoned him. The next one promised Tripoli in two to three days. Soyombo knew no one makes that trip in a week. Source: The PUNCH: Bad governance, traffickers pushing Nigerian youths to Libya - Soyombo (interview, 25 Oct 2026)
- "The odds are against you; you are more likely to die than survive that journey." Fisayo Soyombo, who travelled the route undercover. Source: The PUNCH: Bad governance, traffickers pushing Nigerian youths to Libya - Soyombo (interview, 25 Oct 2026)