SPAIN
Over the Fence
Spain has a wall, or at least a fence. And still they come.
Recently, around 300 African migrants stormed the fence separating Ceuta, a Spanish exclave on Africa’s northern coast, from Morocco, El País reported.
More than 100 of the migrants made it over the 20-foot high fence topped with razor wire, then celebrated by flying the Spanish and European Union flags. Border guards rushed in to stop them but the migrants threw corrosive substances at them, injuring seven, according to euronews.
In a similar clash less than a month earlier, more than 600 men forced their way into the city.
The incidents show that the European migrant crisis is far from over.
The Australian noted that around 1,500 refugees have entered Spain every week this summer – five times more than Italy and three times more than Greece. More than 26,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in the southern European country so far this year, the UN migration agency reported.
Northern Africa and the Middle East – and now, possibly, Turkey – are suffering from economic instability, wars, famine and internecine violence. European territory on the African continent looks attractive to desperate folks who would prefer not to take to the sea in rickety, dangerous boats.
Many of the migrants in the latest clash at Ceuta were given medical attention and legal advice about seeking asylum. But they refused asylum, Spanish officials said, and were quickly shunted back over the border, an approach that Amnesty International has criticized.
“Due to the speed at which it is carried out, it is difficult to guarantee access to a personalized procedure with full guarantees,” the organization told Reuters.
The controversy over Spain’s treatment of migrants is partially a result of Italy closing its border to migrants following the election of nationalist populists who view migrants and the European Union as threatening Italian culture, the New York Times wrote.
Ironically, the Telegraph of Britain pointed out that Italy doesn’t mind taking European money. Italian leaders used around $230,000 in EU funds to redirect at least one refugee-laden ship from Italy to Spain.
Many of the migrants don’t make it. Some Spanish citizens have been burying those who perish in a bid to provide them with dignity.
An Al Jazeera video told the moving story of Samuel Kabamba, a Congolese child who drowned in the Mediterranean 11 days before his fifth birthday. His body washed up in Spain. His mother’s was found on the shore in Algeria.
“As I bury these migrants, I tell them that if they didn’t find a better world down here, I’ll ask God to give them a better life up there,” a gravedigger told the news service.
The migrants aren’t looking for a better life in the hereafter. And many say they didn’t have to die chasing a better life across a sea.
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