▲ Arrival of migrants at the port of La Restinga, on the island of El Hierro, Canary Islands, a few days ago.Photo Europa Press

Armando G. Tejeda

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, August 26, 2024, p. 30

Madrid. It’s been two and a half years since I arrived in Spain and I’ve been able to eat thanks to selling things on the street and thanks to the help of friends from my country, but nothing more, it’s been an almost solitary struggle.he told The Day Malian Boubbakar Jatta, 28, who sells football shirts at a market and sleeps in a ramshackle house with eight compatriots.

His case is an example of the lack of resources and programs lifeas they are called by third sector associations, to incorporate into the labour economy tens of thousands of migrants who arrive in Spanish territory every year, either by sea or air.

In 2024, all records for the arrival of Africans along the coast are expected to be shattered; if the forecasts are met, the barrier of 50 thousand people will be exceeded in the Canary Islands alone, which have become the preferred route in recent years.

Spain, along with Greece, Germany, Italy and France, is one of the countries with the highest concentration of undocumented migrants. The case of Spain is one of the most delicate, since a large part of the entry of migrants is done by sea, due to the dangerous canary routewhich causes thousands of deaths and shipwrecks every year. Of particular concern is the situation of more than 7,000 minors, many of whom are orphaned during the crossing and live in overcrowded shelters in Spain, especially in the Canary Islands, where they are already on the verge of collapse.

Since I arrived on the island of El Hierro, after a trip of more than 10 days during which a cousin and a friend died, I have only received some help from the Spanish government. The first few months they gave me a place to sleep and something to eat, but at no time did they help us learn the language or resolve our legal situation so we could work.Boubbakar said.

This is a large part of the criticism that NGOs make of migration policy in Spain, which does not have specific programs or plans to incorporate into the labor market the thousands of migrants who are staying in the country. And there is an urgent need for labor in several sectors; for example, in construction, around 800 thousand workers are needed and in the field, which has the peculiarity of temporary employment, more than 30 thousand are needed.

Boubbakar’s case is similar to that of thousands of people in the same situation. If they do not receive political asylum status, which is granted in a few cases, they have to survive at least three years without papers, and therefore without the possibility of applying for formal employment. So they decide to sell on the street, almost always counterfeit products from major brands. After three years, they can then formally request regularization arguing social rootswhich they have to prove with official documents over those three years, such as doctor’s appointments or requests to the administration.

According to a recent report from the Ministry of the Interior, 31,155 people have arrived in Spain illegally so far in 2024, of which 22,304 have done so via the Canary Islands coasts, in small wooden boats that usually depart from Mali, Senegal or Mauritania. If this trend continues, taking into account that August, September and October are the busiest months on these routes, it is estimated that more than 70,000 people will arrive in Spain and more than 50,000 in the Canary Islands alone.

Fernando Clavijo, the regional president of the Canary Islands, goes further and estimates that between now and the end of the year more than 70,000 people will reach the Canary Islands, which means that 2024 will end with almost 100,000. Last week alone, more than 700 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands aboard several cayucos with at least a dozen minors.

Following the humanitarian crisis, the Spanish Prime Minister, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, agreed to meet with the Canarian leader to address the situation, taking advantage of the fact that the Iberian leader chose the island of Lanzarote for his 25-day vacation. At the meeting, Sánchez announced extraordinary aid of 50 million euros and confirmed that his trip next week to Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia seeks to address this situation and stop the massive arrival of cayucos to the coasts.

We left our country because we are hungry and we want a better life, but it is very difficult to achieve this because once we manage to get to Europe we find many barriers to simply being able to start working, which is the only thing we want.Boubbakar explained.