 Experts have long agreed that the Sahara crossing is one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world, but concrete evidence is scarce. No one talks about what it's really like, a Ghanaian man told me, of the terrible conditions he faced on his journey across the desert. IOM's missing migrants project has recorded nearly 2,000 deaths in the Sahara since 2014, but countless more go unreported. There are many risks inherent to the desert crossing, high temperatures, scarcity of food and water, and long distances to travel, but these are made worse by human cause factors. The irregularization of migration across the Sahara and continuing instability in the region pushes people to more remote hazardous routes across the desert. We know so little about trans-Saharan migration. If no one talks about what it's really like, how can we make sure that those who most need this information make safe, informed choices?