Illegal migrants head south for new life in the North

More and more people are travelling across West Africa to Senegal’s southern Casamance region where they board open-topped wooden fishing boats to make a treacherous 1,500 km journey to the Spanish Canary Islands and the chance of a new life. Yesterday alone, 462 African migrants arrived on the islands in five boats, said Domingo Martin, provincial director of health and assistance for the Spanish Red Cross in Tenerife, the archipelago’s capital. “They arrive with what they are wearing and nothing else,” he said. For years, boatloads of Africans have tried to illegally enter Europe by sea, but this year more young men, women and children are embarking on longer journeys across the ocean than ever before. Bemused bikini-clad sunbathers offer up their water to the parched and weary arrivals, but many others perish, their bodies lost at sea. This year alone, more than 14,700 illegal immigrants have arrived on the shores of the beach resorts of the Canary Islands, Martin said. The Red Cross did not have a figure for last year. Some reports, citing Canary Islands authorities, say this year’s arrivals so far are triple those of all of last year. Spain has no formal repatriation agreement with Senegal. As a result, Spanish authorities in the past were forced to release illegal Senegalese immigrants, and others with no identity papers at all, on the Spanish mainland. Martin said he is unaware what happens to the migrants after they receive humanitarian assistance. “When we finish with them the police take care of them and the government takes over. The intention is to return them,” he said. NEW POINT OF EMBARKATION The point of embarkation of the recent arrivals was unclear. At the beginning of the year, the departure point of choice was further north, at Nouadhibou in northern Mauritania, just 750 km from the Canary Islands. But as Spanish authorities working with local security forces have increased patrols of sea and launch-points, the migrants have been pushed south of The Gambia to Ziguinchor, the main city in Senegal’s Casamance region. “Nearly all the illegal Senegalese migrants that head for Spain now leave from Casamance,” said one of the traffickers who asked not to be named. “There are less security forces on this part of the coast.” Senegalese authorities have made scores of arrests in recent weeks of Senegalese and nationals from neighbouring countries. Some 83 would-be migrants were arrested in July alone, said Police Commander Daouda Diop. Mor Diaw makes money as a travelling salesman from the far northern Senegal town of St Louis, but he travelled the length of the country to Ziguinchor to evade Diop’s patrols and make his bid for Europe. “It’s almost impossible to leave from Dakar or any of the regions further north. Security forces are everywhere, especially along the coast. It’s to dodge their surveillance that I came here. I hope to leave in several days,” Diaw said. Earlier this month, President Abdoulaye Wade, who took office in 2000 promising economic revival and jobs, appeared on national television to appeal to youngsters not to leave the country. “Life never fails to be difficult,” said the president, “but no sorrow should lead to this kind of suicide.” An unknown proportion of the small wooden boats can’t endure the rough ocean. Government forces perusing the coastline have come across the corpses of many migrants who never reached their destination. Other bodies are lost at sea. LACK OF OPPORTUNITY Senegal’s Ministry for Youth received 8 billion CFA francs (US $15.5 million) of state money between 2001 and 2005 to tackle the problem of migrants and increase youth opportunities. But that injection of cash can’t compete with the riches Europe might offer. Across West Africa, most people lack employment. Uneducated and unskilled, they may never expect to earn a regular wage and plan for a better future. Instead, the average West African family is getting poorer by the year. Often the fare for the ocean journey is begged and borrowed from the migrant’s extended family on the promise that money loaned will be paid back with interest once the migrant has found work in Europe. The fare can run as high as 400,000 CFA francs (US $800). To begin their journey, migrants make contact with traffickers who give them a location and departure time in secrecy. On payment of the fare the passengers hop aboard. “I have decided to leave for Spain because there is no work here,” said Philippe Sagna, a 22-year-old fisherman who says even the seas are providing less fish. “I can’t live like this anymore, so I’ve decided to go on the same adventure as others from my country who are now sending back money for their parents.” Every year millions of US dollars are sent back to Senegal by family members working abroad. For many families, the few dollars here and there keep the kids in school, or shoes on the family’s feet. Across Africa, workers’ remittances are a lifeline. According to UN estimates, some US $17 billion was sent back to Africa by workers and family members living abroad between 2000 and 2003 - or more money than the continent earns in direct foreign investment. The assistant mayor of Ziguinchor puts the blame for the exodus squarely on the shoulders of President Wade. “If the young people leave massively, then it’s because someone misled them,” said Moustapha Diedhiou. “They do not have the employment that President Wade promised them. President Wade’s youth policy has failed.” mad/asb/ss/cs/ccr