Doctoral Lecture “The Mediterranean’s Atlantic Route: the African–Canary Islands Necrocorridor”

Date: Thursday, 29 January 2026
Hour: 18:30–20:00
Place: Aula Mediterrània, European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) & Online

Speaker: Mohammed Ouhemmou (Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco)
Chair: Luisa Faustini (GRITIM-UPF)

• Link to the session (online): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhEEwMwGXss 

Synopsis

This lecture focuses on one of the most deadly migration corridors in the Mediterranean context: the African–Canary Islands Atlantic route. Spanning up to 1,600 kilometres and often requiring several weeks of navigation, this route exemplifies what can be described as a “necrocorridor”—a migration pathway that becomes particularly lethal due to specific political, structural, and social conditions.

While migration corridors broadly refer to the routes taken by migrants, not all corridors are equally dangerous. The concept of necrocorridors highlights how certain routes are transformed into spaces of death through political decisions, structural neglect, and media banalisation. Building on debates around necropolitics, Judith Butler’s theory of grievability, and arguments from global justice, the lecture examines how these dynamics systematically prevent mourning and remembrance of migrant deaths.

The presentation is structured in three parts. First, it introduces the conceptual and theoretical foundations of necropolitics and explains why the Canary Islands route is particularly illustrative. Second, it presents the methodology, data sources, and the theoretical model proposed to understand necrocorridor formation. Finally, drawing on empirical data and ethnographic research, it proposes an evidence-based model showing how necrocorridors are politically constructed and normalised by the same policies, institutions, media, and public discourses that generate them.

Bio

Mohammed Ouhemmou is Assistant Professor at Ibn Zohr University in Agadir, Morocco. His research interests include public policy analysis, migration, and internationalisation policies, with a particular focus on the relationship between foreign policy and the politics of mobility. He has published extensively on migration governance in Morocco and North Africa, including work on Moroccan–Algerian migration policies, migration governance and geopolitical conflict in Africa, and migration and integration policies in the MENA region. He also researches educational mobility from sub-Saharan Africa to Morocco, examining how African students navigate symbolic and social borders within Moroccan universities.

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