Hundreds rescued as Spain becomes new migrant destination

Spain’s coastguard service, the Salvamento Maritimo, says at least 479 people were rescued between 14 and 15 July, while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Spain from North Africa.

The rescued group of migrants, which included about 100 minors, was picked up by a Spanish Civil Guard vessel.

As Libya has become increasingly difficult to pass through on a journey towards the Mediterranean, migrants are frequently risking their lives by attempting to reach mainland Spain by boat, rather than Italy.

So far this year, 294 migrants of the 1,400 migrants who died in the Mediterranean were attempting to make it to Spain by sea.

Many migrants try to make it into Spain’s North African enclaves bordering Morocco first. In addition to the impenetrable fences that are specifically designed to keep migrants away, the enclaves are heavily guarded on the Spanish and Moroccan sides. Migrants wait months and even years to try to make it across the fence.

After travelling through Mali to reach Algeria, Youssouf arrived in Morocco five years ago. Since then, Youssouf has attempted to breach the border to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta multiple times.

Fintor, a 22-year-old from Mali, said he wants to reach Spain to play football. “Doing this makes us feel ashamed. Our families don’t know that we do this,” he said. Before he came to Morocco, he had spent months in Libya but “didn’t have the means to pay for the crossing.”

Those who make it to Spain tell tales of disappointment. Francis Kashamba, a 32-year-old unregistered Ugandan migrant in Spain, who lives with some 30 other migrants in an abandoned school in central Barcelona, got 10 euros for working a 14-hour day.

Kashamba told The Local: “I feel like a baby, I cannot do anything, I cannot decide my future. If I had papers, I could get… a job and provide things for myself, but now I only can pray.”

“I feel cheated… I had been told that Europe was a paradise. But real life in Spain, from what I have seen in these seven months, is not good at all,” Kahamba added.

TMP – 09/08/2018

Photo caption: African migrant sleeping on the doorstep of an abandoned building in Barcelona, Spain on 24 May 2015