Young Moroccans in Ceuta: “The president says there is work here”

A long journey that not everyone manages to make in the bay of Ceuta, from Castillejos to El Chorrillo beach. About six kilometers. Many die and others fail after several attempts. Alil Merghad wears the Spain jersey with the champion’s star, but he does not speak the language very well. However, he uses new technologies well. This is how he manages to communicate. On your mobile, you have a reliable Google translator. He brings the microphone closer and asks for a question, reads the translation and answers with the mobile phone in Arabic, which he translates so that it can be read in Spanish. The conversation via this phone reveals a drama with the photo of his mother as the wallpaper. “She died. My father too. I have no one and that’s why I tried eight times until I managed to get there. “Four of my friends died at sea,” says the 19-year-old at the door of the Temporary Stay Centre for Immigrants (CETI) in Ceuta. Despite those who stayed behind during the journey, Alil took the risk until he managed to spend two months. “I was a minor on board the Tarajal ships, but they tested me and I was an adult. “They threw me out and now I’m here, in the centre,” explains the asylum-seeking migrant, after osteometric examinations of his wrist to measure different growth parameters revealed the certainty that he was not a minor. He now says he wants to work as a cook in Spain. “They say there is work here. I want to earn money and, Allah willing, start a family,” he says. Related news During his visit to Mauritania, the No Sánchez switchboard: “Immigration is a necessity that brings certain problems” Inés Ruiz-Jiménez and Patricia Romero The president of the The government announces the creation of a Spanish-Mauritanian business council and the establishment of the Cervantes Institute in that country. Interested and biased news has spread like wildfire among those hoping to find a better world. On cell phones, groups are formed in which a few words from President Pedro Sánchez are shared saying that there is a shortage of 250,000 workers. There is no talk of regulated immigration or requirements to be met. Only a lack of labor that must be filled with immigrants. “The president says that there is work here, that there is a need for workers,” said Riduan Blatet, a miner in Ceuta who says he has his brothers in Santander, to take the plunge. I want to work as a barber in Barcelona,” says Ismail, 20. He is one of the Algerians who swam in Ceuta these days. He has experience. It is the family business. He has helped in his parents’ hairdressing salon since he was a child. Today, as he seeks a future in Europe, his dream is to be able to reach Catalonia, while he is losing hope that the friends with whom he began the journey are alive. “They are probably dead,” he says. Seeking asylum and work. Migrant minors at the doors of a reception centre in Ceuta. ABCWork is also what Mohamed Zohar wants. His face is covered with bandages from wounds. “I used to do them when I came to swim,” he says, trying on sneakers on a staircase in the Tarajal industrial area, where he barely writes his name and a 17 in his notebook to indicate his age. He is one of the minors waiting to be housed in the warehouses where the Autonomous City Government has set up tents for common areas, the dining room, toilets, changing rooms and a few prefabricated bungalows as barracks for sleeping. This is not the cold concrete of 2021, where children sought a blanket on the ground, a hammock or an industrial shelf to spend the night in the streets of this lifeless industrial area, once a porterage center and now a place of reception. and businesses have closed their doors. Mohammed says he does not want to study. “No, no. “I want to work,” adds the minor before running away when he sees a television camera. Ceuta has 500 teenagers like Mohamed housed in different centers. The one in Piniers is overflowing. The Ceuta government explains that they are setting up tents to accommodate them while waiting for the bungalows to arrive, like those in the warehouses. The Esperanza center is full and there are already several “resources” outside these large centers. Complaints from neighbors In one of the urbanizations on the outskirts there are two chalets converted into centers for minors. “Education is the most powerful weapon,” reads one of the walls while one of the guests looks out of the window from a roof. Neighbors have complained about the attitude of some of the 30 housed there. There is another more suitable chalet in Varela, another part of the city, and minors in the Dos Mares hotel, almost in the center of Ceuta. Seven minors were released Thursday night, but some have been placed in foster families. The pressure remains the same. Of the 80 that Ceuta should welcome, it has 500. “We cannot be a big city of refuge. We need to direct minors to other communities, for the Government to give us places to set up shelters, more resources and finance us in the face of this emergency,” explains the Minister of the Presidency, Alberto Gaitán, who describes the situation in the city as a “humanitarian drama.” A tragedy that has numbers. Last week, the government delegation in Ceuta explained that there were 500 attempted jumps per day, with peaks of up to 700. On Monday, with the fog, up to 1,500 people tried to jump into the sea. The tragedy is shaking the city. Not only for minors, but also for adults, where the CETI has almost 800 people, while there are places for 500. They are all requesting political asylum to be able to look for a place that will take them to the peninsula to begin to fulfill their obligations. their European dream. The same one for which many have died. “In the coming days, bodies will continue to emerge. “We don’t have numbers, but there will be some here, others will go to the coasts of Morocco and we won’t know it and there will be others that won’t even be taken by sea,” says Gaitán.

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