Head Count 1,254

A couple of weeks ago, sitting on the floor over a typical shared tray of Senegalese yassa (rice with chicken and vegetables) I had to laugh when one of the guys I was eating with blurted out, “You know that we´re (the Senegalese) are the smartest people in Africa, right?” I´ve become all too familiar with the international and inter-ethnic rivalries in Africa that seem to come through in every conversation, but stopped short when I realized what he was getting at. “How many countries are there in Africa that have border the ocean? Dozens. And yet, we are practically that only ones making cayukos (the small ´fishing´ boats the migrants use to get to the Canary Islands (Spain))! Yep, that´s because we´re the smartest people in Africa”.

Last week alone, the number of people who made it to the Canary Islands totalled a record breaking 1,254, and what Ibrahima said is true – the production of cayukos has turned into an industry in and of itself as boats are made specifically for human trafficking and people arrive from all over Sub-Saharan Africa to catch their boat out of Senegal. Oddly enough, though, Senegal is one of the most stable countries in Africa, internationally recognized as one of the most democratic countries in the world, with relatively low poverty rates and HIV rates similar to most European countries. So why is it that thousands of the young and talented nonetheless put their lives on the line? Because the true story of what the reality is in Europe never reaches home.For every boat full of people carrying big dreams that make it safely to the islands, dozens more are lost at sea despite the high-tech GPS systems that are now being used to guide them. In fact, not long ago, local area fishermen were filing complaints against the Spanish government “because their failure to control immigration is devastating the fishing trade”. To put it “nicely”, fisherman are now literally catching more corpses in their nets on a daily basis rather than they are fish, and are turning into the front line of the maritime border control crews sent out to spot incoming migrant boats.As the summer days draw near, the cayuko arrivals once again become more frequent – so frequent, in fact, that they have almost become their own section on the nightly news. “The arrival of 93 undocumented immigrants is expected around 5.30AM tomorrow morning in the port of Tenerife …” It might as well be the week’s weather forecast. I´ve often been asked whether I see myself as working in favor of people who have broken a clear law that requires a passport and/or visa to enter the country. My question has always been why the governments that make restrictive border policies chose to “sponsor” their entries, paying them under the table to come to Barcelona and then blatantly violating their basic human rights.Then again, perhaps the question better question should be, do you believe in defending the inviolable human dignity of criminals?