As the sun sets on Lake Turkana, a mother cries and throws flowers into the green blue water to remember her teenage daughter, who drowns out new routes attempted to reach Kenya through the use of human smugglers.

Senait Mebrehtu, a Pentecostal Christian Eritrean who sought asylum in Kenya three years ago, made a pilgrimage to northwestern Kenya to see Hiyab, 14, die last year.

The girl had been traveling with her sister who survived the late night intersection where the wind energy was strong.

“If smugglers told me that Kenya has a big and dangerous lake, I wouldn’t have let my daughter go that far,” Ms. Sett told the BBC while sitting on the western coastline.

Ms Senait escaped religious persecution by taking a tourist visa with her two young children on Kenya’s capital Nairobi. However, she was not allowed to travel with her two other daughters at the time because they were older and closer to recruiting age.

Eritrea is a highly militarized one-partisan state – often, national services may last for years and may include forced labour.

The teenagers begged to join Kenya, so she consulted relatives and they told her they would ship the smuggler to take the girl out of Eritrea.

The fate of the two girls was handed over to traffickers, who took them to a week-long trip from Eritrea to neighboring northern Ethiopia - then to southern Kenya, to Kenya, to the northeast coast of the world's largest permanent desert lake.

A female smuggler in Kenya confirmed to the BBC that Lake Turkana is increasingly being used as an illegal crossing for immigrants.

“We call it the digital route because it’s very new,” she said.

Traffickers communicated about her work in secret locations and anonymity for every migrant she trafficked to or through Kenya (four times the average monthly salary of Kenyan workers).

For the past 15 years, she has been part of a massive smuggling network operating in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa - primarily to migrate people who will flee Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.

As Kenya stepped up patrols on the roads, smugglers are now turning to Turkish Lakes to bring immigrants into the country.

"Agents" on the new route received immigrants in the Kenyan fishing village of Lomekwi, where road transport took them to Nairobi, which was about 15 hours' journey, she said.

Warning the dangers of traveling on a shaky wooden boat, she urged parents not to let their children travel alone.

She told the BBC: “I wouldn’t say I like the money I make – because as a mother, I’m not happy when I see bad things happen to other women’s children.”

"I would like to advise if immigrants will listen to me. I want to beg them to stay in their own country," she said, further warning many traffickers about their attitude.

Osman, an Eritrean immigrant who doesn't want to name for security reasons, crosses with Hiyab and her sister at the same time.

He recalls that the mountain bull's ship was tilted before his eyes as it left the fishing village of Ileret shortly after Hiyab left the fishing village of Ileret.

"Hiyab is on the boat in front of us - its motor doesn't work, it's driven by strong winds."

"When their ship flipped, they entered the water about 300m (984 feet), killing seven people."

Hiyab's sister insisted on surviving the sunken ship until another ship (also operated by smugglers) began to rescue.

Ms Senait accused the smugglers of death, saying they were overloaded with more than 20 immigrants.

"The cause of death was obvious negligence. They put too many people in a boat that could not even carry five people," she said.

During the BBC's visit to Lomewki, two fishermen said they saw the bodies of immigrants - believed to be Eritreans - floating in a lake, which is about 300 kilometers (186 miles) long, about 50 kilometers wide, about 50 kilometers wide and about 2024 wide.

"There were about four bodies on the shore. Then, a few days later, the other bodies appeared."

Another fisherman, Joseph Lomuria, said he saw the bodies of two men and two women - one of them appeared to be a teenager.

In June 2024, UNHCR, UNHCR recorded 345,000 Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers in East Africa, with 580,000 out of 580,000 worldwide.

Like Ms Senait's family, many fled to avoid military recruitment in a country entangled in numerous wars in the region, and liberal politics and religious activities were intolerant as the government tried to hold on to power.

Mula Berhan, an Eritrea lawyer based in Uganda, told the BBC that Kenya and Uganda are increasingly becoming the preferred destination for these immigrants due to the conflict between Ethiopia and Sudan, both neighbouring Eritrea.

The female smuggler said in her experience some immigrants did settle in Kenya, but others used the country as a border crossing to Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa, believing it would be easier to gain refugee status there.

Smuggling networks operate in all of these countries, handing over immigration to different "agents" until they reach their final destination, and in some cases it could also be Europe or North America.

Her job is to hand over migrants transported in Nairobi to agents who left them before "holding the house" until arrangements and payments for the next trip.

By this stage, each immigrant may have paid about $5,000 until that point.

The BBC saw an apartment in a room that was used as a detention center. Five Eritreans were locked in the room with a mattress inside.

In the house held, migrants are expected to pay rent and also pay for food - the smuggler said she knew three men and a young woman who died of hunger after running out of cash.

The agents simply dispose of the bodies, she said, and claimed their death was unfortunate.

“Smugglers have been lying to their families, saying their people are still alive and they continue to send money,” she admitted.

She said female immigrants were often sexually abused or forced to marry male smugglers.

She said she had no intention of giving up profitable trade but felt that others should be aware of what they might face.

There was little comfort for Ms Senait, who still mourned her 14-year-old death while expressing that her eldest daughter survived and was not hurt by the smugglers.

“We’ve gone through what every Eritrean family is going through,” she said.

“May God heal our land and free us from everything.”