Despite the unequivocal and daily messages that associate migration and problems, dignity is gaining ground and funerals are organized in El Hierro. These are neighbors who, in turn, say goodbye to unknown migrants
Last weekend, “32”, “33” and “36” died when their boat capsized in El Hierro, on the verge of being rescued. As they do not know their name, nor what they wanted to be, nor their favorite color, a number is chosen to which the number of the patera is added, like the pearls of a sinister abacus. With them, fifty other people died, falling from the boat, unable even to paddle after days on the high seas, their bodies stiff. They will appear on a shore, maybe a fisherman will find them or they will blend in among the rocks where they are fishing. tuba tourists.
Despite the unequivocal and daily messages that associate migration and problems, dignity is gaining ground and funerals are organized in El Hierro, as journalist Gara Santana recounts in this delicious column. These are neighbors who, in turn, say goodbye to unknown migrants. They are nothing of you, nothing less than companions of the world.
In El Hierro, despite the daily drops, the skin still hurts every day: we buy flowers, we cry, we think of them and what they suffered. He acts like a father, mother or son. By giving so many figures and counting the cayucos in this reception crisis, what is important becomes blurred: who is inside. The group of residents of El Hierro is capable of not forgetting this and countering the disastrous political message sent since before the summer.
If the administrations do not want to welcome minors or migrants, if the PP votes against its compulsory nature, if there are still 5,500 children in the Canaries waiting to leave for the peninsula, it is difficult for the administrations to think that migration is not bad or does not pose a problem or threat.
The Canary Islands are the most dangerous route to reach Europe (it is also a minority route compared to arrivals by plane). Sub-Saharan African citizens make up a tiny portion of foreigners in Spain (mostly Moroccan, Romanian or Colombian citizens live), but the increase in arrivals by boat this year has emerged as the biggest problem, making headlines , in public debate and is even capable of breaking regional governments in the name of avoiding a so-called disaster. The reality is stubborn, but the fallacious arguments are even more so, driven by intimate fears encouraged by xenophobic messages.
Three months after the government proposed compulsory distribution in the form of quotas, negotiations continue, the solution is still postponed and, with it, racism worsens.
