{"id":16630,"date":"2018-09-28T10:27:12","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T10:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=16630"},"modified":"2018-09-28T10:27:12","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T10:27:12","slug":"sub-saharans-in-tangier-pray-to-be-lucky-ones-who-reach-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=16630","title":{"rendered":"Sub-Saharans in Tangier pray to be ‘lucky ones’ who reach Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Tangier, Morocco –<\/strong> Nestled in Tangier’s backstreets, Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral rises above the fracas of heated market trading as Archbishop Santiago Agrelo\u00a0Martinez leads an impassioned service.<\/p>\n

Most of his\u00a0congregation are sub-Saharan Africans\u00a0planning\u00a0to reach Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the service\u00a0ends, Martinez\u00a0is\u00a0surrounded\u00a0by\u00a0worshippers\u00a0pleading\u00a0for assistance\u00a0with medical bills or\u00a0employment.<\/p>\n

Others simply\u00a0ask for a\u00a0prayer\u00a0for friends who\u00a0recently\u00a0attempted\u00a0the crossing to Spain but have since disappeared.<\/p>\n

“Our desire is that emigrants have a family unit through the church to which they can always go, as if it was their own home,”\u00a0Martinez\u00a0tells Al Jazeera.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The most difficult thing is to see them humiliated every day, begging in the street, suffering in fear and not knowing when that hell will end,” he says. “I cannot help feeling their situation as mine.<\/span><\/p>\n

“In this house, we somehow take care of everything for them: food, clothing, body hygiene, physical and mental health, housing, the schooling of children, the development of personal skills and assisting them with getting jobs in small companies\u00a0in Tangier.”<\/span><\/p>\n

For the first time\u00a0since the refugee\u00a0crisis\u00a0began\u00a0in 2015, the Morocco to Spain route has become the most popular path for asylum seekers attempting to reach Europe’s shores.<\/p>\n

If I stay in Mali there is no work, no future and no security. I want to go to Europe to work, I’m happy to do all the jobs that Europeans don’t want to do; I just want to be safe.<\/p>\n

Alhassane Keita, 42-year-old Mali migrant<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Up until September 10 this year, a total of\u00a034,994\u00a0people<\/a> made the perilous journey,\u00a0dwarfing\u00a0numbers\u00a0for the\u00a0Libya-Italy and Turkey-Greece\u00a0routes with\u00a020,210 and 20,827<\/a> respectively. This figure is\u00a0also\u00a0already treble that of 2017.<\/p>\n

According to some reports<\/a>, Moroccan authorities\u00a0believe\u00a050,000 migrants are currently based in Tangier and its surrounding area.<\/p>\n

The Morocco route is not without its own specific danger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Amnesty International blasted Moroccan authorities for a “shocking” crackdown on sub-Saharans.<\/p>\n

Since the end of July, the Moroccan police together with the Royal Gendarmerie and the Auxiliary Forces carried out major raids on the neighbourhoods where refugees and migrants live in several cities, with particular intensity in the northern provinces of Tangier, Nador and Tetuan, which neighbour the Spanish borders, said the rights group.<\/p>\n

“This shocking crackdown on migrants and refugees in Morocco is both cruel and unlawful. It represents a worrying backslide for a government that in 2013 introduced new asylum and migration policy commitments to bring Morocco into compliance with international standards,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Director.<\/p>\n

An estimated 5,000 people were swept up in the raids since July, piled on to buses and abandoned in remote areas close to the Algerian border or in the south of the country, according to the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH). The group monitored the number of buses that left from Tangier, Tetuan and Nador and calculated an estimate for the number of people seized.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
New arrivals sleep rough on Tangier boulevard [Joe Wallen\/Al Jazeera]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

And those who end up attempting the journey to Spain are also put at risk at sea.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a Moroccan woman was killed and three other people were left wounded – one critically – after the country’s navy opened fire at a speedboat carrying migrants.<\/p>\n

The Moroccan interior ministry said in a statement that a naval unit operating in the Mediterranean was “forced” to fire on the boat because its Spanish driver “refused to obey” orders.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Alarmphone, a network of activist and migrant groups providing a 24-hour hotline for refugees in distress at sea, said it had assisted eight boats in distress coming from Morocco, one of which was returned to the north African country.<\/p>\n

The majority of\u00a0Martinez’s congregation live in the adjacent\u00a0kasbah\u00a0area of the city.<\/p>\n

Alhassane Keita, 42, has called it home since he fled Mali in early 2013 when fighters advanced to within 20km of his city Mopti.<\/p>\n

“If I stay in Mali there is no work, no future and no security,” Keita\u00a0tells\u00a0Al Jazeera.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I want to go to Europe to work, I’m happy to do all the jobs that Europeans don’t want to\u00a0do;\u00a0I just want to be safe.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alhassane Keita says he does not have a future in Mali and is willing to do low-paid work in Europe as long as he is safe [Joe Wallen\/Al Jazeera]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Asylum seekers\u00a0take\u00a0advantage of lax housing regulations\u00a0in the\u00a0kasbah,\u00a0living\u00a0cheaply,\u00a0crammed into\u00a0decrepit\u00a0homes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u00a0are so many sub-Saharan refugees and migrants in the area\u00a0that Moroccans have begun referring to it as “Petit Dakar”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another\u00a0kasbah\u00a0resident,\u00a016-year-old Mohammed Jallo, fled Sierra Leone\u00a0when he was just 13.\u00a0His parents were murdered in a revenge killing linked to the country’s bloody civil war.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u00a0had\u00a0worked for three years on a\u00a0Chinese-run\u00a0construction site\u00a0in rural Algeria\u00a0before coming to Tangier.
“I came through the desert to get to Algeria,” he recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The journey is not easy\u00a0and many people die\u00a0–\u00a0I saw people die with my own eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sometimes we walked for 90 or 100 hours at a time with only a couple of hours break each night.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The traffickers will just leave you in the desert if you cannot keep walking, with\u00a0no\u00a0food and water.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Libya is too dangerous these days. It is\u00a0at\u00a0war so we are coming\u00a0to Morocco instead.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mohammed Jallo, 16, fled Sierra Leone seeking safety at the age of 13 after his parents were killed [Joe Wallen\/Al Jazeera]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

An\u00a0Al Jazeera\u00a0report<\/a> in January 2018\u00a0documented that migrants and refugees were still being sold as slaves in open markets in Libya, despite international condemnation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Others continued to be held against their will by armed groups until their families paid ransom money.<\/span><\/p>\n

Further migrants had avoided entering Libya after hearing\u00a0<\/span>news reports that NGOs were stopping\u00a0rescue operations off its coast due to security fears, and <\/span>as the Libyan coastguard\u00a0was allegedly<\/a> leaving asylum seekers to die at sea.<\/span><\/p>\n

Italy’s recent decision to refuse entry for both rescue\u00a0boats\u00a0and merchant ships\u00a0carrying refugees and migrants leaving Libya\u00a0also had an effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahmed, not his real name, is a\u00a0Tangier local and smuggler and agreed to speak to\u00a0Al Jazeera\u00a0on\u00a0condition of anonymity.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that\u00a0he sends\u00a0over two\u00a0small\u00a0boats a week each carrying 62 people and\u00a0charges between $900 and $1,150 per\u00a0person\u00a0meaning that he can earn\u00a0up to $500,000\u00a0a month.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Migrants and refugees often meet in the newly set up cafes, such as this one for Senegalese arrivals in Tangier’s old town [Joe Wallen\/Al Jazeera]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Using sub-Saharan middlemen, he seeks\u00a0out refugees and migrants who meet in the recently established\u00a0Senegalese\u00a0or Eritrean community cafes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once a fee is agreed,\u00a0the asylum seekers\u00a0are\u00a0transported to forests near remote beaches from\u00a0where they set sail in the middle of the night.<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked whether he is concerned about the Moroccan police, he laughed and explained that he pays off certain officers to ensure safe passage for his boats.<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a02015,\u00a0Morocco introduced\u00a0year-long renewable residency permits, allowing\u00a0migrants to move to Morocco and work legally while saving up to travel to Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, after\u00a0the 33 years of exclusion from the African Union ended,\u00a0Morocco’s King\u00a0Mohammed VI introduced\u00a090-day\u00a0visa-free travel\u00a0on arrival\u00a0to many sub-Saharan nationals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Malick Diallo, 20, these policies enabled him to fly directly to the country from Senegal and save up the money needed to attempt several crossings by working\u00a0as a labourer in Tangier.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back at Our Lady Cathedral, as news<\/a> filters through that\u00a0400 asylum seekers, attempting to reach Spain from Morocco, have had to be rescued in just one weekend, a young Liberian man, Daniel, implores Santiago Agrelo Martinez to pray with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Almighty has told me it is time\u00a0to make the journey to Europe,” he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Pray with me that I am one of the lucky ones.”
<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tangier, Morocco – Nestled in Tangier’s backstreets, Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral rises above the fracas of heated market trading as Archbishop Santiago Agrelo\u00a0Martinez leads an impassioned service. Most of his\u00a0congregation are sub-Saharan Africans\u00a0planning\u00a0to reach Europe. As the service\u00a0ends, Martinez\u00a0is\u00a0surrounded\u00a0by\u00a0worshippers\u00a0pleading\u00a0for assistance\u00a0with medical bills or\u00a0employment. Others simply\u00a0ask for a\u00a0prayer\u00a0for friends who\u00a0recently\u00a0attempted\u00a0the crossing to Spain but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":16631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}