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kiwi
Sweden
662 Posts |
 Posted - 30 Jul 2007 : 20:01:22
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I have been reading reports on illegal immigration to the Canary Islands on daily basis for almost a year now. If you are not familiar with them I would like you to read this.
Number of African and other illegal immigrants to the Canary Islands is said to be lower than last year which is hard to believe when reading the daily reports. Almost every day there are at least one or several ships arriving with desperate Africans, some of them in bad condition, some never arrive.
During April arrived 631 immigrants, totally 2056 during the first four months compared to 4606 last year.
800 minors are still on the islands and they so far have not received economical aid from the Spanish mainland.
Only Lanzarote and Fuerteventura have electronic coast radar which can discover the ships. Three Spanish patrol boats and two helicopters are permanently watching the shore outside Senegal.
The fact that Frontex has intensified its coastal guard outside Senegal, the departure places have moved to Morocco and Mauritania. The distance is shorter, but at the same time the quality of Mauritanian ships are inferior to those of Senegal which makes the passage even more dangerous.
Frontex says we cant alone guard EU shores and ask for solidarity from other EU countries. We cant alone take care of all illegal immigrants seeking for refuge says the Canary Islands authorities and ask for solidarity from the Spanish mainland. We alone cant be responsible for guarding the European shores and take all the responsibility for all immigrants coming to Europe says the Spanish government and ask for solidarity from other EU countries.
Frontex says further that it is not economically or technically possible to have a permanent base on the Canaries. One patrol boat and one aeroplane cost 3.700 Euro per hour.
Spain´s contribution to Frontex is 8 patrol ships, 2 helicopters, 4 policemen from Policia Nacional and 2 military policemen from Guardia Civil.
Fernandez de la Vegas, vice prime minister says that co-operation with African countries concerning economy, politics and development is a necessity.
About 3 % of the immigrants remain on the Canary Islands due to injuries needing medical care, in most cases amputation due to gangrene in some extremity. The immigrants tell that dehydration put them in ”mental doze”and therefore the boat owners tie a rope on them in order to protect them from jumping into the sea, but the ropes give them gangrene. The public medical treatment only covers the critical phase, then they are handed over to voluntary organizations. The injured are young men between 20 and 30 from Senegal, Mali and Ivory Coast.
Another tragedy not much talked about is the death during the journey. When someone is suspected to be dead, the body is kept on board for 24 hours. After that the body is thrown into the sea. Subsequently, the bodies found on arrival have been dead for less than 24 hours. Later on someone reports to the family.
29/4 Yeasterday a cayuco arrived to Gran Canaria with 82 Africans onboard.3 were dead. They lay on the bottom of the boat together with two others who were unconscious. The relatives of the deceased were in tears. 4 of the passengers were women and a child of 18 months. In all 41 needed medical treatment. The journey took 10 days, the last three without food and water.
30/4 The Spanish sea rescue towed a cayuco with about 50 African immigrants to Gran Canaria. An aeroplane spotted the cayuco last night 60 nautical miles from the island. 4 of them were so badly dehydrated and cold that the hospital ship Esperanza was called to take them ashore for further transport to hospital in ambulances. One was later reported dead and sex in need of intensive care.
3/5 A cayuco was spotted 94 nautical miles south of Gran Canaria with 99 African immigrants. They were taken on board the rescue ship and were taken onshore in wheel chairs and stretchers. 4 of them were minors.
9/5 A ship with 23 Asian immigrants are since three months still on board Marine I outside Mauritania as no country accept to let them in.
10/5 The Spanish mainland have received two small pateras with 36 North African migrants. A merchant vessel spotted the first one and called the sea rescue ship which on her way spotted another patera. All were in good condition.
Médecos del Mundo examines the 23 immigrants i Mauritania, all with psychological problems. They are ”stored” in a hangar which is storeroom for fish. Red Cross provides them with food and other necessities.
11/5 9 boats with in all about 100 immigrants reached the Canary Islands last night. A cayuco with 49 immigrants arrived under own steam to Los Cristianos, most likely from Senegal. 80 Africans have been taken on board from their cayuco by a rescue ship and were brought to Los Cristianos. 3 boats with 49 North Africans were transported to Arguineguin. Three empty vessels are found on the shores, the immigrants have most probably escaped and abandoned the boats while one more boat with 18 Africans has been led to land.
12/5 Due to fine weather 11 boats arrived with more than 350 immigrants, 22 of the minors during the last three days. Only three of the boats were discovered by the electronic radar. 5 Moroccans were arrested for human smuggling.
13/5 The crew on a yacht outside El Hierro found a cayco with 60 Africans and informed
the sea rescue. All 60 men were well.
14/5 99 Africans arrived to Los Cristianos, 4 of them women and 15 minors. Almost at the same time yet another cayuco arrived to Teneriffe with 103 migrants. Yesterday a boat with 66 Africans, two minors of them a baby of ten months arrived to the Spanish mainland.
15/5 In all 464 immigrants arrived yesterday to Teneriffe, Gran canaria and Lanzarote. Totally 1052 have arrived during the last four days.
16/5 A cayuco which arrived yesterday had 98 Africans on board, 10 are minors, all well after a journey of 11 days. Sources say that there are about 5000 people in Morocco waiting for an opportunity to sail over. 22 immigrants ran away from an internment camp yesterday. The camp is built for 326 persons but houses 426.
19/5 2 pateras arrived to Motril on the Spanish mainland with totally 116 African immigrants, 7 women and two children.
20/5 The 23 Asian immigrants i the hangar i Mauritania have been transferred to a camp in north Mauritania. A patera arrived to Fuerteventura with 5 on board. They fled on arrival but were caught by Guardia Civil. One was from Morocco, one from Algeria and three from Mauretania.
21/5 The Spanish Ministry of the Interiors has repatriated 600 Senegalese immigrants during the last weekend. Moreover were 150 immigrants sent to Morocco, Mauritania and Guinea Bissau. A patera with 9 persons arrived to Lanzarote, 5 of them probably minors.
23/5 Senegalese police rescued yesterday a boat with three dead and two alive outside the country´s north coast. The journey had started a week earlier from Kayor south of Dakar. Last weekend the authorities stopped three boats from Casamance, among them a boat from Gambia with about 100 people.
24/5 Late last night two boats came to the Canary Islands with 41 immigrants.
25/5 A cayuco with 93 immigrants – 6 minors - arrived this afternoon. They were escorted by a helicopter and rescue boat. The group will be transferred to a camp, El Matoral. When the interns have spent 40 days on a camp, they must be released.
The camp on Teneriffe is overcrowded, it lodges 413 persons, more than 200 of them in tents.
28/5 Early in the morning a boat came with 25 Moroccans, 8 of them minors. All will be sent back to Morocco.
A Moroccan patrol boat rescued a cayuco which had capsized outside West Sahara with 121 immigrants. 63 were from Gambia, 57 from Senegal and one from Ivory Coast.
It has appeared that the boat owners from North Africa travel with the boats as they want to keep their boats for further business whilst West African immigrants are sent away on their own.
31/5 During the last hours have totally 140 immigrants arrived to Andalucia in the mainland, the first with 68 Africans – 8 women, two of them pregnant and three babies, the second with 60 African men and the third with 12 North Africans who are going to be sent back. A Spanish fishing boat rescued 26 immigrants in distress in the Mediterranean Sea. The fishing boat was very small and hardly had space for them all. Both Malta and Libya refused to take them. The Spanish rescue boat has arrived and has taken the Sierra Leonean immigrants on board.
2/6 A cayco with 60 immigrants including 3 children were found yesterday by a rescue plane south of the Canary Islands. A helicopter and a patrol boat were alarmed.
6/6 Under own steam arrived yesterday a cayuco to Gran Canaria accompanied by Guardia Civils patrol boat. On board there were 44 Gambians alive, one of them minor and two were dead.
7/6 A cayuco arrived to Los Cristianos with 50 Africans, three minors. All were in good condition after ten days on the sea. A rescue boat rescued 67 immigrants in two boats outside Gran canaria.
8/6 37 immigrants in a patera were rescued outside Fuerteventura. A Moroccon family member called and a helicopter found the boat.
9/6 EU:s 27 member countries cant agree on legislation concerning rescue operations on international water areas. Two pateras with 50 immigrants are drifting about in the high sea 65 kilometres from Africa´s north coast belonging to Libya. Authorities in Libya says that they can´t send away a rescue boat due to bad weather.
11/6 A cayuco with 139 Africans arrived yesterday to Santa Cruz followed by a rescue boat and Guardia Civil. They left Casamance 13 days earlier. They were in fairly good condition. The boat nearly capsized as all of them tried to leave the boat at the same time. Also on board were two outboard motors, a GPS, a compass and a mobile phone.
Another cayuco with between 80 and 100 Africans is south of El Hierro and is expected to arrive later during the day.
Early in the morning a patera arrived with 26 persons, among them 6 women and 4 infants. At the same time arrived another patera with 14 North Africans.
A young woman had miscarriage during the passage to Fuerteventura. Her two female fellow travellers, one of them only 14, took care of her. She was sent to hospital with severe bleedings. The three or four months old foetus lies on the bottom of the sea together with thousands of dead migrants.
13/6 A cayco has been spotted drifting about on the open sea 130 nautical miles south of Teneriffe and the 130 immigrants have been taken on board rescue ship Punta Salinas for transfer to Los Cristianos.
14/6 Last night a rescue boat followed a cayuco with 140 West Africans to Los Cristianos.
At the same time another cayuco with 35 Africans were followed by rescue boat to Fuerteventura.
15/6 A Spanish fishing boat has yet again rescued lives. On board on a small boat drifting about outside Libya were 25 exhausted Africans and one dead African. After negotiations with Libyan authorities they got permission to take them to land but were later denied. The crew says they are tired as they cant sleep but they feel sorry for the immigrants.
16/6 The surviving 25 immigrants were handed over to Libyan authorities. The rescue operation was dramatic. One immigrant jumped into the sea but were rescued by the fishing boat crew. Shortly after the patera capsized and all the passengers fell into the sea. The crew rescued all but one who was bleeding and died.
5/7 A small boat arrived to Los Cristianos with 35 on board. Two were dead. ”He didn´t make it, he died, but that´s life” said the brother to one of them, with sorrow all over his face.
19/7 50 immigrants are missing. Spanish rescue ship tried in the rough sea pluck them from the boat. Some of them got nervous and started to stand up when suddenly the boat was hit by a wave in the side and they all fell into the water. The wave was more than 5 metres (16 feet) high. They were about 100 in all but only half of them were rescued.
Five merchant ships, two helicopters and a French aircraft carrier, which happened to be in the region, were taking part in today's search efforts off the Canary Islands but in vain.
( A similar incident : U.S. Coast Guard crews searched waters off the north coast of the Dominican Republic Friday for nearly 50 Haitian migrants missing since their home made boat caught fire, an agency spokesman said. At least five people died when the fiberglass vessel the migrants were apparently taking from the northern Haitian town of Cap-Haitien to the Turks and Caicos Islands caught fire about 23 miles north of the Dominican Republic. Officials said they are searching for 44 Haitians after the crew of the motor yacht Worldwind rescued two of the migrants Wednesday morning west of the Haiti and Dominican Republic border -- the area where the 30-foot sail freighter went down.)
Malta has been heavily criticised for incidents in which its fishing boats have refused to pick up African migrants found clinging to tuna nets for three days!
In December of last year, at least 80 Africans bound for the Canary Islands died when their boat sank off the coast of Senegal, one of the common points of departure for these trips, according to the Spanish Red Cross.
As recently as yesterday, two boats carrying would-be migrants sank between Italy and Libya, leaving five people dead, including a child, Italian officials said. Eleven others were missing and presumed dead.
So many lost lives.
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kiwi |
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Alhassan
Sweden
813 Posts |
Posted - 31 Jul 2007 : 13:35:21
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Kiwi,
The only way to stop it is no tell our brothers and sisters to drop their feverish attitude to come to Europe or the US. These boats are not new for us who left the Gambia in the 60s. I have a close mate from Afdie in Banjul who died on the same route in 1969. Ask the older Gambian seamen. They know about it cause they were affected badly. The Port of Dakar no.8 is an example. there too have young ganbians lost lives like former John Wine from Youdum, Chongan junior, and many others.
I would suggest a campange in the Gambia to discourage these journeys. |
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serenata
Germany
1400 Posts |
Posted - 31 Jul 2007 : 14:22:29
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kiwi, thank you for the reports. It is shocking. The number of deaths is horrible, and I didn't know about the many people losing limbs due to gangrene. Maybe one should tell those who want to make this journey about the risk to reach Europe crippled.
But the most important action would be to provide jobs in Africa. As a first step the governments should stop certain cheap agricultural imports from Europe and US, and stop giving fishing licenses to the industrialized countries. |
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Alhassan
Sweden
813 Posts |
Posted - 31 Jul 2007 : 14:29:39
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quote:
Originally posted by serenata
kiwi, thank you for the reports. It is shocking. The number of deaths is horrible, and I didn't know about the many people losing limbs due to gangrene. Maybe one should tell those who want to make this journey about the risk to reach Europe crippled.
But the most important action would be to provide jobs in Africa. As a first step the governments should stop certain cheap agricultural imports from Europe and US, and stop giving fishing licenses to the industrialized countries.
serenata,
a good suggestion to be forwarded to the EU. |
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serenata
Germany
1400 Posts |
Posted - 31 Jul 2007 : 14:58:15
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Alhassan, I fear the EU knows only too well what they are doing to Africa.
Maybe some big '3rd World'-organisations should start a boycot campaign against fish from African waters. Sometimes the consumer is mightier than the politician... |
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kiwi
Sweden
662 Posts |
Posted - 01 Aug 2007 : 21:54:54
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I didn´r know this happened already in the 60s, thanks for telling.
There is a documentary, called ”Cayuco”, produced by the Canary Island government and Ministry of social welfare about migration from Africa with a view to tell Africans about the dangers of passage and the reality awaiting on the archipelago. It includes interviews in Senegal with mothers and wives who have lost their family members, and with some repatriated survivors as well as lonely and desperate children in Teneriffe.
The documentary is available for free for every African or EU television company . Maybe someone could propose GRTS to show it – Alhassan?
I have also read reports saying that an international human rights group have criticised Spain for holding hundreds of migrant African children in appalling conditions on the Canary Islands — including windowless "punishment" cells where they are beaten and denied access to toilets. There also are reports of sexual abuse.
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kiwi |
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Alhassan
Sweden
813 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2007 : 09:01:32
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kiwi,
I am happy to read that you have also done a very good homework. The incidents named in your posting is known to some of us. There are even some who were forced to join the Spanish legion in those days. I have some friends who dissapeared in this manar during Francos time. Can we join efforts so as to get this film? If you have the contacts I am willing to find a contact to get the film to GRTS. |
Edited by - Alhassan on 02 Aug 2007 09:02:43 |
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kiwi
Sweden
662 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2007 : 10:08:56
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Of course I realise that many of the facts are known by many of you, not only from papers but also through families and friends. I still found it worth the effort to make a record, hoping for comments.
I do have a contact on Teneriffe who is on holiday for the moment. When I have the address I´ll forward it to you.
If you would care to tell more about the incidents during the 60s and about joining the Spanish legion, I would be interested
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kiwi |
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Alhassan
Sweden
813 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2007 : 11:39:16
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kiwi,
I cannot do more about the Spanish Legion because they can trace me if I quote incedints. They are still effective in locating desartors.
I am shall contact the GRTS for some assistance if we have the film. |
Edited by - Alhassan on 02 Aug 2007 11:40:48 |
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kiwi
Sweden
662 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2007 : 13:06:38
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| Ok, just one question; I believe "join by force" means due to economical reasons, to make a living. There is a piece "Spanska främlingsregionen" on Wikipedia and a lot of more articles for me to read. I knew about the legion but not about Gambians participating. And common picture here is that Africans who came to Sweden in the 60s were musicians or dancers, fell in love and married while a lot of Afroamericans were deserters from Vietnam. |
kiwi |
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Alhassan
Sweden
813 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2007 : 14:40:25
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kiwi,
There are a number of Gambians with the Spanish Legion. Moreover a lot more Gambians live in Spain than Sweden. Gambians knew a lot about Spain before Sweden. There used to be a tourist boat that went between France and the Ivory Cost, through Dakar. Then we as Gambians did not need visas to Europe. It was those days.
To join was not because of economic reasons. Those I know have been forced because they were picked up by the Gurdia Civil because they were roming at the wrong place at the wrong time. The Americans too were in Spain at the said time because we use to mingel with them sometimes. I am a jeli but a historian and came to Sweden in the mid 70s. |
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serenata
Germany
1400 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2007 : 18:34:08
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Yesterday 'Monitor', a political magazine in German TV, had a short, but very good documentary about the tragedy of the West African boat people. In special they highlighted the fishing licenses given to EU and others as a main cause of the problem.
Senegal stopped giving licenses. In this documentary Mamadou Lamine Ba, the minister of development in Senegal, explained (in good German!) that even the money for these licenses didn't arrive at the government. Senegal is acting like a sovereign, intelligent nation. WHAT ABOUT GAMBIA?
The 'Monitor'-link for German speaking readers:
http://www.wdr.de/tv/monitor/beitrag.phtml?bid=904&sid=167
Another interesting link:
http://www.cape-cffa.org/
(Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements) |
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kiwi
Sweden
662 Posts |
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brusubi
Netherlands
43 Posts |
Posted - 11 Aug 2007 : 14:31:59
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Especially Dutch and Marroccan fisherman steal a lot of fish from the shores of Senegal Gambia and Mauretania.
When I first visited gambia in 1995 I was shocked to see thousands of small dead fishes being washed ashore, they were leftover cathes from big floating fishfactories to small to use so just thrown into the sea. I wrote a letter of protest to our government about it.
Two years ago Greenpeace stopped a floating fishfactory for a week in the harbour from Amsterdam, this ship planned to do fishing in Senegal, it brought a lot of media attention and certainly helped to do something about the problem.
there are also different ways, a big Dutch fishcompany is buying fish and prawns from Gambian fishermen and they process them for the European market in their own factory in Banjul which gives a lot of job oportunities for Gambians, another company is buying lobsters from fishermen and flying them to Holland every week
roger |
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serenata
Germany
1400 Posts |
Posted - 13 Aug 2007 : 13:45:49
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| Good news brusubi. So with cooperation it is possible to have a 'win-win'-situation. Some Western business dogmas need to be revised. |
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kiwi
Sweden
662 Posts |
Posted - 27 Sep 2007 : 21:59:55
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Rebeca is a twelve years old Gambian girl. Last week she arrived to El Hierro in a cayuco together with two young boys and 143 adults. She is the first girl arriving without any family members. The Canary Islands have no centre for girls, therefore she will be placed in an orphanage.
Why did her parents send her away? Did they expected her start working and send money home? Or did they need one less to feed? Doesn´t she have any parents?
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kiwi |
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