Odessey Of Sub-Saharan Migrant to Spain

A study published in the Informing Humanitarians Worldwide, deconstructs the vision of Africa as a continent of mass displacement and international migration.

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The report explains that the largest migratory flow in Africa is between countries on the same continent. According to the International Agency for Migrations IOM, only 14 percent of the planet’s migrants were born in Africa. 53 percent of African migration is within the same continent, only 26 percent goes to Europe. Africa, then, is characterized more by being a continent of internal refugees than international migration.

The report highlights the fact that Africa a the continent with the most refugees in the world, with 3 million, 25% of the global quota by 2021, in addition to having 19.2 million displaced people. In relation to that 26 percent that goes to Europe. The report also clarifies that these migration movements are not only consequences nor fundamentally of the security issues that create so much alarm in the Western media. More than insecurity, it is the lack of rights that is the roots and structural bases that drives people to migrate out of Africa.

Sub-Saharan immigrants who arrive in Europe are very vulnerable to social and economic inequality, government mismanagement and the terrible consequences that international crises bring to Africa.

According to the Cáritas organization of Spain, “we do not see what is happening in Africa as a security crisis more than a serious crisis of rights, which are particularly violated due to armed conflicts which the main caused of frustration and the lack of dignified conditions.”

The migratory flows that arrive in Spain, the destination par excellence in the EU, escape because of many factors, as climate change, structural poverty, and the lack of opportunities. It is the young ones, those who have some resources, especially young single men, who can set higher migratory expectations and propose to reach the first world countries.

The report critics the image projected in the West, classifying the arrival of African immigrants in Europe as alarmist, disarticulating this phenomenon from a much broader, complex, and diverse process. Instead, it explains that this should refer to the unequal relations between the developed north and a south detained in underdevelopment. So, the report claims, more than a problem, African migratory flows to Europe as a responsibility of these receiving societies. They must focus on protecting and assisting migratory flows, not only at entry points, but also during the journey that leads thousands of Sub-Saharan Africans to Europe.

Sub-Saharan migration to Spain

Today there are initiatives that, inspired by a comprehensive and complex reading of the migration problem, implement respectful and responsible policies with sub-Saharan migrants who have Spain as destiny. Accompaniment itineraries for migrant women and minors have existed for more than 6 years. The accompaniment program is based on an exchange of information and reception experiences made up of European Caritas and other assistance organizations from North and West Africa.

50% of Africans who arrive in Europe do so by sea. The route most used by sub-Saharan Africans to reach Spain is the Western Mediterranean route, where “irregular” migrant arrival, both by sea and by land, the latter through the cities of Ceuta and Melilla in the north of Africa, although politically belong to Spain.

Morocco and Algeria are the countries that serve as the final destination for migrants who follow this route. Algeria is known as an unfriendly country towards sub-Saharan migrants. In a December 2022 news published in FEE described Algeria as “the ordeal of sub-Saharan migrants”. Reference was made to the tens of thousands of migrants that Algeria had expelled from the country in a few years: “ they are taken to the border, an open desert, then they must cross 15 kilometers on foot to reach the town of Assamaka, to then be repatriated to their countries of origin.”

In the case of Morocco it is not very different, although in this case the country ends up becoming a final destination for many.  Although it seems to be something positive, it should be noted that the living conditions to which these sub-Saharan immigrants, who gave up coming to Spain, will not be very far from what they had in their countries of origin, especially those who came from urban. According to the General Secretary of the Council of Sub-Saharan Migrants Aimee Lokake: “Many people are lost. They have been left without a job, they cannot access aid neither can they pay rent or electricity”. Morocco, in fact, was the main country responsible, in collaboration with Spain and the European Union, for the significant decrease of migratory flows in 2019 to the European continent and Spain in particular.

West African Route

This route refers to irregular arrivals to the Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean. Many  who arrive to this region usually come from Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia. All these itineraries are extremely dangerous.

Many migration NGOs and media continuously report the drowning and disappearance of migrants while crossing from West Africa to the Canary Islands. Spain and Morocco are held responsible for this event, by not implementing an efficient coordination of the rescues.

Today it is still a challenge for the European Union and Spain in particular to carry out effectively the management of sub-Saharan migration, as promised.  It is necessary that its humanitarian projection be comprehensive and safe. On June 8, the EU Council agreed on two basic regulations in this regard: Regulation on asylum procedures and Regulation on migration management.

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