One Saturday in October 2021, three years before arriving in El HierroImran, a tall, thin, dark-skinned man, walked the wide, tree-lined avenues of Islamabad, Pakistan. As the moderate heat of the afternoon enveloped the city, he considered fleeing the scene. Emigrate abroad, as many of his friends had done before. I already had the idea. All that remained was to find the Or and the as.
United Arab Emirateshe thought. And it was relatively easy for him. After obtaining the money necessary to arrive Dubai On a direct flight, the welcome that the million and a half Pakistanis who live in one of the seven emirates had already received before: construction. But two years have passed and the same tall, thin, dark-skinned man began hide.
It was then that someone told him that in Europe life was much better. “They made everything very easy for me”said. They promised him, in exchange for all his savings, a flight to Nouakchott (Mauritania), entry visa into the country, accommodation in the capital for a few days, travel by bus to the port of Nouadhibou and then just a few days of darkness until we reach the Canary Islandswhere, he believed, everything would be light.
The story of Imramto which you had access SPANISH under the pretext of preserving their anonymity, is that of one of the 65 people from Pakistan recently arrived aboard a cayuco at the port of La Restinga, on the Canary island of Iron. An unprecedented event – something similar only happened in 2021, when three Pakistanis arrived in Fuerteventura – which put all authorities on alert, since Home Office until Frontex, the European Border Control Agency.
The Bangladeshi mafia
The price of arriving Pakistan until Canary Islands is from 13,000 euros -sometimes also life itself- and behind the journey there is not an agency but a cross-border criminal organization of Bangladeshi origin. The Central Unit of Immigration Networks and False Documents (UCRIF) of National Police from Las Palmas has been investigating since at least 2022. That year they arrived on the shores of Gran Canaria nine Bangladeshi which, as happened today with the 65 Pakistanis, attracted the attention of the border authorities.
After obtaining several testimonies, the agents of the UCRIF They gradually approached a plot that revealed the affairs of mafias of the irregular immigration inside West Africa. “From Bangladesh, they contact people of Pakistani origin who wish to emigrate to Europe. And after payment, they transfer them, via the India and the United Arab Emiratesto Mauritania by plane”, explain the sources of the investigation.
Fishing boats in Nouakchott, Mauritania.
“Once in Mauritania, they benefit from the help of a person based in the African country and with contacts in the country. immigration checks inside Nouakchott Airport“, which facilitates their entry”, specifies the same source. But while this immigration check may seem like the end of a long journey, for many it’s just the beginning. hotels belonging to members of the criminal organizationwho demand a new payment for “extraordinary expenses”.
They start to contract a debt for this, they are usually obliged to start working in the capital of the Islamic republic. It is at this moment that the supposed leader of the organization appears, a Bangladeshi pseudonym Brain, who, according to several protected witnesses, is responsible for managing “everything” from Nouackchott. Owner of several restaurants in the capital, force migrants to work for him in order to be able to resolve the previously mentioned debt.
Once the migrants have gathered enough money to be able to leave, the leaders of the organization, all Bangladeshis, remember, based in Mauritania… they subcontract the cayucos to the sub-Saharan who are going to walk towards the Canary Islands. They charge, for the intermediation work, 200 euros per person. They do this despite knowing the precarious conditions in which the trip will take place, where there are no security measures and where Spanish legislation on entry into the country is totally violated.
A new route to Asia
“The arrival of migrants from countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan is a sign that illicit trafficking networks adapt their paths leading to reality on the ground,” says Chris Buroskyspokesperson for Frontex, The European Border and Coast Guard Agency is the agency of European Union. Before, it was very common to see people of Pakistan either Bangladesh flying to countries like Turkey or Libya, using airports in the Middle East, in an attempt to enter Europe via the Mediterranean.
“It is possible that after countries like Tunisia And Libya will crack down on criminal networks clandestinely this year, some migrants are now using the Canary Islands route as a new option”, says Burowski. However, these Bangladeshi mafias would carry out actions “small raids” with Asians across the Canary Islands for at least three years.
The cayuco in which the 65 Pakistanis who arrived in El Hierro last week, accompanied by a group of sub-Saharan migrants, were traveling in the port of La Restinga.
According to official data, 68 Pakistani And 14 Bangladeshis they would have entered irregularly into the European Union on board three nautical companies subcontracted by this network. It was precisely the collaboration of several protected witnesses and the statement of a repentant, all arriving in one of these boats, which helped the police. National Police start the investigation; which later in the hands of Las Palmas Provincial Courtled to the arrest of a 45-year-old man and the identification of those responsible in Mauritania and Bangladesh.
On October 16, an Afghan family of the ten members also reached Iron in a canoe Mauritania. They had fled to Afghanistan after the Taliban took power in 2021, staying in several countries before boarding the Canary Islands, where they arrived with people from Pakistan, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania and of the Gambia. It is still early, say the authorities, to draw conclusions. But the arrival of the Afghans responds to modus operandi used by Bangladeshis.
Pakistani and Syrian migrants, after disembarking from a cayuco in El Hierro on October 16.
EFE
In the Canaries, the arrival of new Asian migrants coming from Mauritania due to the diversion of typical migratory routes from the Mediterranean and the Balkans. With many kilometers of coastline, less police control and greater proximity to the islands than other countries such as Senegal, the Islamic Republic has become mafia paradise: In the case of the Bangladeshi criminal organization, with people and relationships between Dhaka, Delhi, Dubai and Nouakchott, it is estimated that it obtained income exceeding million euros.
