00:00:21.897 --> 00:00:26.771
My name is Abdou.
Abdou Cané and I’m from Senegal.

00:00:26.796 --> 00:00:28.796
My name is Sarah Casandra Castañeda...

00:00:28.820 --> 00:00:30.209
I’m 38 years old.

00:00:30.233 --> 00:00:33.553
...and I’m a jurist. I
studied Law in Germany...

00:00:33.577 --> 00:00:36.006
My name is Domingo
Garí, I’m a Contemporary

00:00:36.030 --> 00:00:38.459
History professor in
La Laguna University...

00:00:38.483 --> 00:00:41.935
...and I specialized on European
Union and International Law.

00:00:41.959 --> 00:00:44.285
I am the Center of African
Studies Vice President,

00:00:44.309 --> 00:00:47.065
position I’ve been holding
for the past two years now...

00:00:47.090 --> 00:00:49.104
My name is Juan Carlos de Armas...

00:00:49.128 --> 00:00:49.846
My name is Iratxe Serrano...

00:00:49.871 --> 00:00:51.870
...I’m part of the Spanish
Commission of Refugee Aid...

00:00:51.895 --> 00:00:54.745
...I’m the General Director of Child
Protection for the Canary Islands Government...

00:00:54.769 --> 00:00:55.757
...CEAR in the Canary
Islands. At the moment,

00:00:55.781 --> 00:00:59.545
I’m in charge of
territorial coordination...

00:00:59.569 --> 00:01:00.982
My name is Víctor Martín Martín...

00:01:01.006 --> 00:01:02.045
My name is Loueila…

00:01:02.069 --> 00:01:04.002
...I’m a professor for
the La Laguna University,

00:01:04.026 --> 00:01:05.959
within the Geography
and History Department...

00:01:05.983 --> 00:01:09.633
...I’m saharan, lawyer
and I work with people

00:01:09.658 --> 00:01:13.019
who arrive by seaway
to the Canarian shores.

00:01:35.879 --> 00:01:41.883
I’m part of a Canarian civil
society’s collective of volunteers

00:01:42.047 --> 00:01:46.215
spontaneously organized to
overcome the extreme situation

00:01:46.268 --> 00:01:50.044
we’re currently living
across the islands due to the

00:01:50.083 --> 00:01:53.677
migratory movements and
above all, as a response to the

00:01:53.702 --> 00:01:57.040
public institutions’s
ineffectiveness on the matter.

00:02:01.836 --> 00:02:05.701
Overcrowding of such amount of
people in a place that clearly does

00:02:05.726 --> 00:02:09.591
not meet the minimum conditions
and wasn’t built for such purpose.

00:02:09.615 --> 00:02:14.224
Those are military barracks, therefore
are not suitable for accommodation.

00:02:14.248 --> 00:02:17.899
They have remained
unused for many years and

00:02:17.923 --> 00:02:21.573
now have been repurposed
in very few weeks.

00:02:21.807 --> 00:02:25.023
It was known something
like this could happen.

00:02:25.047 --> 00:02:27.781
Acts such as those occurred yesterday.

00:02:46.880 --> 00:02:50.178
We knew, from the information
we had, there were many

00:02:50.202 --> 00:02:53.501
people forcibly displaced
for a variety of reasons,

00:02:53.915 --> 00:02:58.440
who were hoping to find a
space of wellbeing, a safe

00:02:58.464 --> 00:03:02.989
space where they’d be
protected and taken care of.

00:03:03.778 --> 00:03:05.778
That's the reason they
opted to go the Occidental

00:03:05.803 --> 00:03:07.624
Sahara migration route
to the Canary Islands.

00:03:07.649 --> 00:03:08.445
We knew it.

00:03:08.470 --> 00:03:10.770
That’s why it’s an emergency,
for the way it’s approached.

00:03:10.795 --> 00:03:13.192
And it could easily be foreseen
because we knew it was going to happen.

00:03:13.216 --> 00:03:15.973
It saddens me, it irritates
me when, for example,

00:03:16.207 --> 00:03:19.145
with what happened yesterday,

00:03:19.465 --> 00:03:21.730
I see pictures of blood
in the media and I read

00:03:21.754 --> 00:03:24.019
comments saying “¡Oh!
Dídn’t know blood was red.”

00:03:32.129 --> 00:03:34.222
It’s been decided to leave them here

00:03:34.324 --> 00:03:35.855
for a rather long period of time which

00:03:35.880 --> 00:03:38.707
in some cases can take over 6 months.

00:03:39.348 --> 00:03:43.379
Therefore, the situation for them,

00:03:43.404 --> 00:03:45.918
both men and women,
because there’s plenty of women,

00:03:45.943 --> 00:03:47.027
it’s quite dramatic.

00:03:47.777 --> 00:03:51.340
Even human rights

00:03:51.365 --> 00:03:54.168
defended by every
international organization,

00:03:54.193 --> 00:03:56.121
and signed by the Spanish Government,

00:03:56.308 --> 00:03:59.934
here we doubt of them being respected.

00:04:05.692 --> 00:04:09.512
Canarian society is quite fragilized.

00:04:09.739 --> 00:04:12.371
With a rather outgoing economic sector

00:04:14.364 --> 00:04:16.480
since around 70% or more

00:04:16.505 --> 00:04:17.918
of the Gross Domestic Product

00:04:17.943 --> 00:04:20.066
as well as employment
opportunities, depend on tourism,

00:04:20.091 --> 00:04:23.082
a sector overwhelmed/crashed

00:04:23.453 --> 00:04:24.871
by the virus’s impact.

00:04:37.036 --> 00:04:40.801
They arrive at a beach or dock and
are immediately detained for 72 hours.

00:04:41.301 --> 00:04:45.918
Then, they are examined by a
Non-Governmental Organization

00:04:45.943 --> 00:04:48.004
with quite a few internal
operation difficulties.

00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:50.402
After that, they’re taken to hotels

00:04:50.427 --> 00:04:52.086
and other touristic
accommodations for a while

00:04:52.325 --> 00:04:54.738
everything is uncertain at this point,

00:04:55.317 --> 00:04:59.177
and at last, they’re
moved to refugee camps.

00:05:01.063 --> 00:05:04.099
It’s definitely a dramatic
situation they’re immersed in,

00:05:04.389 --> 00:05:07.779
since [the camps] do not
meet the right conditions

00:05:08.099 --> 00:05:09.693
to shelter such amounts of people.

00:05:13.435 --> 00:05:15.857
We sailed away on September 2nd 2006

00:05:16.280 --> 00:05:19.005
and we arrived on the 7th.

00:05:20.349 --> 00:05:23.794
It was a Thursday afternoon

00:05:24.300 --> 00:05:26.177
and we arrived on a Saturday,

00:05:26.202 --> 00:05:27.036
around the same time.

00:05:27.061 --> 00:05:28.247
It took us 4 days and a half

00:05:28.678 --> 00:05:32.747
when it takes around 11 or 12
days for most ‘pateras’ to arrive.

00:05:33.991 --> 00:05:36.388
But every step of the journey is programmed

00:05:36.413 --> 00:05:37.505
if all goes well,

00:05:37.884 --> 00:05:39.669
to last about 7 days.

00:05:40.164 --> 00:05:41.599
I can imagine, the journey itself,

00:05:41.624 --> 00:05:44.017
must have been rather
drastic for these people,

00:05:44.042 --> 00:05:45.568
considering how much death they’ve seen

00:05:45.593 --> 00:05:47.575
and the subhuman conditions
in which it’s happened.

00:05:47.615 --> 00:05:49.685
It’s not safe or sanitary whatsoever.

00:05:50.123 --> 00:05:52.529
But perhaps the greatest surprise

00:05:52.554 --> 00:05:55.091
has been the way
immigrants are being received.

00:05:57.341 --> 00:05:59.365
After what we experienced in 2006,

00:05:59.506 --> 00:06:02.310
it seems nothing has progressed
but it has worsened instead.

00:06:02.849 --> 00:06:06.482
The majority of people who have arrived

00:06:06.890 --> 00:06:08.982
can be considered economic immigrants.

00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:12.396
These are people who seek a better life.

00:06:12.782 --> 00:06:15.177
Same as me when I went to Germany

00:06:15.280 --> 00:06:18.927
seeking for a better job,

00:06:19.044 --> 00:06:20.857
maybe a higher paid one...

00:06:30.608 --> 00:06:31.630
It gets worse overtime.

00:06:32.021 --> 00:06:34.779
At first they’re accommodated at a hotel

00:06:34.958 --> 00:06:36.622
financed by the European Union.

00:06:36.647 --> 00:06:38.661
Then they’re moved to an overcrowded camp

00:06:38.904 --> 00:06:40.630
and, at last, many of them

00:06:40.888 --> 00:06:43.732
leave those facilities in fear,

00:06:43.757 --> 00:06:45.568
fear of being repatriated.

00:06:45.949 --> 00:06:48.927
This is due to this center’s inability to

00:06:49.271 --> 00:06:51.849
communicate in their native languages.

00:06:52.318 --> 00:06:54.833
They get away from these centers,

00:06:55.287 --> 00:06:57.615
from the humanitarian system

00:06:57.896 --> 00:06:59.458
and are left alone on the streets,

00:06:59.483 --> 00:07:00.935
at the hands of the
Immigration Department,

00:07:00.960 --> 00:07:02.974
where they can easily
get caught by the police

00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:05.654
and taken to a Foreigner Internment Center.

00:07:05.686 --> 00:07:06.669
And these, we’re basically

00:07:06.788 --> 00:07:08.560
talking about provisional prisons

00:07:08.982 --> 00:07:10.786
where they wait to be returned.

00:07:11.146 --> 00:07:12.990
The Canary Islands are being

00:07:13.015 --> 00:07:14.271
turned into a sort of prison

00:07:14.818 --> 00:07:16.849
or prolonged confinement for migrants,

00:07:20.091 --> 00:07:23.372
in an attempt to prevent these people

00:07:23.537 --> 00:07:28.693
who seek a way out of the misery,

00:07:28.943 --> 00:07:30.607
political violence

00:07:30.840 --> 00:07:32.255
and lack of democracia

00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:34.372
prevalent in their home countries,

00:07:34.397 --> 00:07:35.833
from coming to Europe.

00:07:38.990 --> 00:07:40.599
The ‘patera’ was uncomfortable.

00:07:40.624 --> 00:07:42.161
We were 107 people

00:07:42.607 --> 00:07:45.904
in a 25 or 27 meters boat approximately.

00:07:46.966 --> 00:07:47.966
Everything was done there:

00:07:47.991 --> 00:07:50.130
the meals, the bathroom...

00:07:50.662 --> 00:07:52.247
all in the same space.

00:07:52.779 --> 00:07:56.771
There were people vomiting, seasick...

00:07:56.796 --> 00:07:59.232
They were suffering.

00:08:07.161 --> 00:08:09.637
We cannot continue

00:08:09.943 --> 00:08:12.115
holding back migrant people

00:08:12.140 --> 00:08:13.599
in borderline territories,

00:08:13.624 --> 00:08:14.786
specially islands ones.

00:08:15.099 --> 00:08:17.411
It only promotes what we know hasn’t worked

00:08:17.436 --> 00:08:19.161
and still doesn’t work in other places

00:08:19.459 --> 00:08:21.208
like Lesbos, like Samos, like Lampedusa,

00:08:21.411 --> 00:08:22.575
Like Ceuta and Melilla.

00:08:23.193 --> 00:08:27.458
It’s an untenable and insufficient model

00:08:27.483 --> 00:08:30.521
sustained by a unidimensional vision

00:08:30.546 --> 00:08:33.724
where all bets are put on a
reception leading to deportation.

00:08:33.749 --> 00:08:36.575
A deportation that is not
happening and it’s not going to.

00:08:36.709 --> 00:08:37.888
And if it were to,

00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:41.068
which and where are the legal guaranties,

00:08:41.093 --> 00:08:42.247
what will be coverage, and such.

00:08:42.803 --> 00:08:46.177
In this situation, the current
government’s vision is so blurred

00:08:46.599 --> 00:08:48.380
we find these people

00:08:49.193 --> 00:08:51.685
being brutally victimized.

00:08:51.710 --> 00:08:53.771
And not only those who reside on the camps

00:08:54.216 --> 00:08:56.591
but also those who live outside,

00:08:56.616 --> 00:08:57.755
the community as a whole.

00:08:57.912 --> 00:08:59.857
That’s probably what
we’ve managed the worst.

00:09:00.262 --> 00:09:02.029
A model of this sort,

00:09:02.229 --> 00:09:05.669
aside from being untenable
and insufficient, is vicious,

00:09:06.177 --> 00:09:08.833
since it undermines them,

00:09:09.154 --> 00:09:12.599
not only physically but also emotionally.

00:09:13.212 --> 00:09:18.398
The system is so weakened
from years and years

00:09:18.423 --> 00:09:24.101
of dismantling, it’s being
overwhelmed at this point.

00:09:24.898 --> 00:09:26.952
I have four times the workload

00:09:27.429 --> 00:09:30.866
I had this time many years back

00:09:32.242 --> 00:09:34.538
and not only do I count
with less economic resources

00:09:34.563 --> 00:09:37.265
but also less human resources.

00:09:38.445 --> 00:09:40.249
We have less employees working

00:09:40.274 --> 00:09:43.655
and those remaining are in a...

00:09:44.905 --> 00:09:46.811
I don’t want to say precarious but...

00:09:46.836 --> 00:09:48.436
yes, precarious employment
situation because,

00:09:48.461 --> 00:09:50.475
at the end of the day, they’re
employees who come and go

00:09:50.500 --> 00:09:52.179
who do not have a secure job position

00:09:52.204 --> 00:09:54.218
and this is preventing
the civil service system

00:09:54.243 --> 00:09:57.226
from igniting the Head Administration gears
so it can function as it is supposed to.

00:09:57.251 --> 00:10:00.984
There’s a structural and
long-lasting lack of workforce...

00:10:01.296 --> 00:10:04.562
It’s a handicap against which
we have to keep on fighting.

00:10:07.694 --> 00:10:11.570
When the ‘pateras’ arrived, only the Red
Cross was managing the reception and,

00:10:12.101 --> 00:10:15.921
to be honest, it was badly organized.

00:10:16.125 --> 00:10:19.851
There are many issues
within the organization,

00:10:19.876 --> 00:10:24.812
such us workers abusing migrants

00:10:24.837 --> 00:10:27.265
and  throwing water at them.

00:10:27.290 --> 00:10:29.916
There’s videos shared on social
media where this can be seen.

00:10:29.941 --> 00:10:31.159
“I’m going to let him die.

00:10:33.971 --> 00:10:34.948
I’m going to let him die.

00:10:34.973 --> 00:10:39.752
Do not ask for help later,
do not ask for anything.

00:10:40.372 --> 00:10:41.372
Fuck you”

00:10:41.597 --> 00:10:45.213
It’s disgraceful to see a Red
Cross worker doing such things

00:10:45.737 --> 00:10:48.049
because he’s working with human beings.

00:10:48.542 --> 00:10:50.713
You are receiving a salary
for aiding these people,

00:10:50.847 --> 00:10:52.448
the least you can do is respect them.

00:10:52.675 --> 00:10:54.745
Because we’re human,

00:10:54.770 --> 00:10:56.940
despite skin colour or origin,

00:10:56.965 --> 00:11:00.291
and we deserve respect.

00:11:05.237 --> 00:11:07.571
Migrants here in the Canary Islands

00:11:07.596 --> 00:11:11.752
are essentially from northern
and western african regions,

00:11:11.948 --> 00:11:15.073
extending  from Morocco, El Magreb,

00:11:15.098 --> 00:11:18.729
to Conakry Guinea and Cameroon.

00:11:19.088 --> 00:11:21.221
Areas of occidental Africa,

00:11:21.246 --> 00:11:24.057
El Sahel, and some Gulf countries.

00:11:24.082 --> 00:11:26.768
But the majority of them are maghrebis,

00:11:27.980 --> 00:11:34.245
saharans, senegalies,
mauritanians, malians or gambians.

00:11:35.535 --> 00:11:39.565
The proximity between these
countries and the Canary Islands

00:11:39.776 --> 00:11:42.635
the reason why they
choose this particular route

00:11:42.660 --> 00:11:45.279
over others crossing
the Mediterranean sea.

00:11:45.479 --> 00:11:48.174
It’s the closest but also
the most dangerous,

00:11:48.261 --> 00:11:51.541
as well as the farthest to
enter continental Europe.

00:12:00.284 --> 00:12:01.854
In southern territories

00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:03.666
such as Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal,

00:12:04.167 --> 00:12:08.588
we can see the great impact

00:12:08.613 --> 00:12:13.401
left by the meddling of old colonial

00:12:13.426 --> 00:12:16.495
powers and fishing companies, in this case.

00:12:16.520 --> 00:12:19.877
Or those related to
exploit mineral

00:12:19.902 --> 00:12:23.315
resources and hydrocarbons

00:12:23.659 --> 00:12:28.276
in a land of great capitalist influence

00:12:28.301 --> 00:12:31.643
and french interests in the area.

00:12:32.284 --> 00:12:34.292
So, what is happening
in these countries?

00:12:34.317 --> 00:12:37.518
Fishing agreements signed
by the European Union

00:12:37.543 --> 00:12:40.502
with both nations, Senegal and Morocco,

00:12:41.253 --> 00:12:44.557
clearly harm  native fishers

00:12:44.582 --> 00:12:48.166
who see themselves unable to make

00:12:48.191 --> 00:12:51.026
a living out of their traditional labor

00:12:51.589 --> 00:12:53.620
and therefore understand

00:12:53.645 --> 00:12:58.401
the only way to do so is
through Europe bound migration.

00:13:02.636 --> 00:13:05.932
Until they won’t stop
looting our resources...

00:13:06.659 --> 00:13:08.768
Our continent is the richest,

00:13:08.793 --> 00:13:09.635
so to speak.

00:13:10.190 --> 00:13:12.245
If it was merely for the gold,

00:13:12.270 --> 00:13:15.986
diamonds, oil and circonite
and all the minerals we have,

00:13:16.011 --> 00:13:17.963
we wouldn’t need to leave Africa,

00:13:17.988 --> 00:13:19.916
we wouldn't need to migrate.

00:13:19.941 --> 00:13:22.682
If Occident would have
managed it properly,

00:13:22.707 --> 00:13:24.799
we wouldn’t leave.

00:13:24.824 --> 00:13:28.284
It’s because of them we are
risking our lives to come here.

00:13:31.964 --> 00:13:35.737
They are coming for a
historical, economic reason.

00:13:35.762 --> 00:13:37.299
Because of colonization,

00:13:37.324 --> 00:13:40.385
neocolonization and decolonization

00:13:42.409 --> 00:13:46.338
As the circumstances in
which  to give an example,

00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:50.307
a french multinational

00:13:50.761 --> 00:13:53.002
locates in Senegal

00:13:53.409 --> 00:13:54.846
to exploit the mines.

00:13:55.089 --> 00:13:56.822
There’s land expropriation

00:13:57.198 --> 00:14:00.237
to create a railway line
connecting the mine with the sea,

00:14:00.262 --> 00:14:03.409
where a french ship
awaits to transport circonite ,

00:14:03.565 --> 00:14:07.151
the principal substitute
of diamonds, to France.

00:14:08.112 --> 00:14:11.955
There’s two elements
closely related to each other:

00:14:12.276 --> 00:14:14.424
one being Imperialism,

00:14:14.760 --> 00:14:18.526
meaning Europe’s need, in this case,

00:14:19.058 --> 00:14:22.002
for the natural resources
of the african continent.

00:14:22.401 --> 00:14:24.776
We have to bear in mind

00:14:24.801 --> 00:14:26.534
that it is a precambrian massif,

00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:28.127
geologically speaking.

00:14:28.245 --> 00:14:30.088
This means any territory

00:14:30.121 --> 00:14:33.151
with such characteristics

00:14:33.627 --> 00:14:36.534
is an open pit mine.

00:14:36.885 --> 00:14:40.962
Hence, african resources
extend across the continent,

00:14:40.987 --> 00:14:43.166
30 million square meters where almost

00:14:43.191 --> 00:14:46.213
every sort of mineral can be found.

00:14:46.737 --> 00:14:49.721
Moreover, the continent
has a great variety of climates

00:14:49.746 --> 00:14:55.583
and soils which allows the
growth of several commodities.

00:14:55.608 --> 00:14:59.101
These are produced for Europe

00:14:59.126 --> 00:15:03.288
and other first world countries

00:15:03.313 --> 00:15:07.866
such as the United States,
Japan or recently China.

00:15:16.570 --> 00:15:18.530
They took the land

00:15:18.555 --> 00:15:20.155
I worked on from me,

00:15:20.180 --> 00:15:22.343
and they took the
sea others fished on.

00:15:22.601 --> 00:15:23.593
So what do we do?

00:15:23.618 --> 00:15:27.343
Board on the same ‘patera’ to come here.

00:15:27.734 --> 00:15:29.718
The European Union has just signed

00:15:29.743 --> 00:15:30.765
fishing agreements with Senegal

00:15:30.835 --> 00:15:32.171
according to which,

00:15:32.687 --> 00:15:35.632
they are allowed to sweep
the sea with their great ships.

00:15:35.657 --> 00:15:37.226
With my small boat

00:15:37.251 --> 00:15:38.882
and 30 liters of petrol,

00:15:38.907 --> 00:15:40.235
I cannot compete against them,

00:15:40.260 --> 00:15:41.265
I have nothing left to fish.

00:15:41.347 --> 00:15:42.304
What do I do then?

00:15:42.525 --> 00:15:45.077
Call a few friends so we can chip in

00:15:45.102 --> 00:15:48.187
with petrol and use the boat to come here.

00:15:59.890 --> 00:16:04.616
Imperialism needs those natural resources.

00:16:05.085 --> 00:16:07.179
Since it needs and consumes them,

00:16:07.204 --> 00:16:09.304
producing countries cannot
use them for self development.

00:16:09.663 --> 00:16:11.538
They cannot develop with the appropriate

00:16:11.563 --> 00:16:16.116
social, economic, political,
educational and scientific considerations.

00:16:16.476 --> 00:16:18.320
Instead their economies are utterly focused

00:16:18.345 --> 00:16:19.952
on producing to export and therefore,

00:16:20.468 --> 00:16:24.077
a normal interior
development is unreachable.

00:16:24.984 --> 00:16:27.796
France, Germany, even Spain,

00:16:28.281 --> 00:16:32.179
all have had the opportunity
to exploit their own territories

00:16:32.204 --> 00:16:34.140
to satisfy their populations’ needs.

00:16:34.328 --> 00:16:35.640
But Africa cannot,

00:16:35.920 --> 00:16:37.757
even having the resources to do so.

00:16:40.937 --> 00:16:42.617
The mines take your land.

00:16:42.945 --> 00:16:45.234
Working in your land you made

00:16:45.656 --> 00:16:48.687
about 2,000 or 3,000 euros per year,

00:16:48.719 --> 00:16:51.756
but now you’re left
with no land and no job.

00:16:52.008 --> 00:16:55.679
So you try to find a way to leave.

00:16:55.860 --> 00:16:57.593
Visas are not easy to get,

00:16:57.859 --> 00:16:59.405
so you board on a ‘patera’ to leave.

00:17:06.375 --> 00:17:08.257
In Africa, 60% of the population,

00:17:08.282 --> 00:17:10.038
meaning 2 out of 3 africans,

00:17:10.063 --> 00:17:11.304
make a living from agriculture.

00:17:12.156 --> 00:17:13.234
So, what has happened?

00:17:13.685 --> 00:17:15.624
Every agricultural production system

00:17:15.656 --> 00:17:18.560
in the continent
has been shattered,

00:17:18.585 --> 00:17:22.341
as a result of international
investments in those areas,

00:17:22.366 --> 00:17:28.280
which in turn have left
many families landless.

00:17:28.380 --> 00:17:30.718
Because there’s a forest
that has to be cut down

00:17:30.804 --> 00:17:34.101
since it has been
granted to a multinational.

00:17:34.126 --> 00:17:36.155
The farmers and families
who live on said forest

00:17:36.180 --> 00:17:37.554
are forced to leave,

00:17:37.579 --> 00:17:40.124
the forest is cut down and
then there’s nothing left there.

00:17:40.300 --> 00:17:43.741
Or agrarian systems,
like the oil palm

00:17:43.766 --> 00:17:46.523
system which also involves said severance

00:17:46.548 --> 00:17:48.929
of small self-subsistence communities,

00:17:49.117 --> 00:17:51.515
to dedicate the land to
the oil palm production.

00:17:51.703 --> 00:17:53.655
These leads into those communities

00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:55.054
leaving their territories

00:17:55.079 --> 00:17:56.507
and find new ways to make a living

00:17:56.532 --> 00:17:58.109
or stay as workers with rather low job

00:17:58.134 --> 00:18:01.179
opportunities and even lower salaries.

00:18:01.726 --> 00:18:04.155
This forces them to migrate,

00:18:04.180 --> 00:18:05.593
usually towards Europe.

00:18:05.618 --> 00:18:06.859
Firstly, they move to the cities

00:18:06.884 --> 00:18:08.218
within the african continent,

00:18:08.243 --> 00:18:10.554
and then they continue
their way to Europe.

00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:29.499
Occidental Sahara was
given to the Mauritanian

00:18:29.524 --> 00:18:30.710
and moroccan governments

00:18:30.735 --> 00:18:33.468
by the last spanish government
underneath the dictatorial regime,

00:18:33.797 --> 00:18:35.999
and subsequent governments,

00:18:36.304 --> 00:18:39.218
political inclination aside,

00:18:39.243 --> 00:18:42.146
haven’t been able to bring
this situation to an end,

00:18:42.171 --> 00:18:44.584
to give a solution.

00:18:44.999 --> 00:18:47.475
Therefore we see how the Sahara’s issue

00:18:47.921 --> 00:18:51.905
is also becoming a canarian issue

00:18:51.921 --> 00:18:55.295
because many small boats
are leaving from Sahara,

00:18:55.320 --> 00:18:57.147
leaving the occupied territories

00:18:57.160 --> 00:18:59.264
like Dahkla, el Aaiun…

00:18:59.757 --> 00:19:04.905
It’s the occupation
government in these areas

00:19:05.100 --> 00:19:07.694
who opens and closes
these migrational pathways

00:19:07.719 --> 00:19:09.600
to force the spanish government,

00:19:09.625 --> 00:19:11.022
and later Europe,

00:19:11.468 --> 00:19:16.100
to sign profitable trade agreements.

00:19:16.459 --> 00:19:18.662
It’s a geopolitical problem

00:19:19.080 --> 00:19:24.350
inherited from the spanish colonial crisis

00:19:24.375 --> 00:19:26.389
in Occidental Sahara.

00:19:26.444 --> 00:19:31.584
“Africa lived autonomously until
practically the end of the 19th century,

00:19:31.889 --> 00:19:35.405
in such a way that Africa
traded with the West,

00:19:35.438 --> 00:19:37.186
one of the trades being the slave trade.

00:19:37.585 --> 00:19:39.265
It traded, face to face

00:19:39.506 --> 00:19:41.131
but at the end of the 19th century

00:19:41.156 --> 00:19:44.373
Europe became interested
in entering the continent

00:19:44.584 --> 00:19:48.287
and that caused the pre-colonial structures

00:19:48.520 --> 00:19:52.139
to be transformed with the
influence of European colonization,

00:19:52.340 --> 00:19:55.686
which gave rise to governments
and economic structures

00:19:55.711 --> 00:19:59.139
that bind the old social classes
that existed on the continent

00:19:59.164 --> 00:20:01.350
with the arrival of European countries.

00:20:01.428 --> 00:20:06.084
So there is a relationship
between those governments,

00:20:06.109 --> 00:20:11.428
direct and indirect, that the European
powers developed with Europe itself.

00:20:11.537 --> 00:20:16.232
And independence did not
change those colonial structures,

00:20:16.320 --> 00:20:21.535
but adapted them to the new needs
that Europe had after World War II,

00:20:21.560 --> 00:20:23.941
which is when the independence
process takes place.

00:20:23.966 --> 00:20:29.250
Therefore, they go from
colonies to independent states

00:20:29.275 --> 00:20:34.500
but in the economy, in society
they are still colonies of Europe,

00:20:34.525 --> 00:20:37.130
in such a way that Europe
establishes commercial treaties

00:20:37.155 --> 00:20:38.763
that were the same that existed before.

00:20:38.788 --> 00:20:43.857
Europe promoted the export crops
that existed before independence.

00:20:43.882 --> 00:20:49.450
Europe strengthened the mineral
resources that existed before independence,

00:20:49.475 --> 00:20:51.154
that has not changed.

00:20:51.536 --> 00:20:57.263
By not changing, what has happened?
That Africans have no other way out

00:20:57.877 --> 00:21:00.111
because their economies
are not diversified,

00:21:00.136 --> 00:21:06.200
other than going on
the path of migration,

00:21:06.398 --> 00:21:10.075
because the autonomous development
of these countries is not allowed.

00:21:10.107 --> 00:21:12.458
Spain itself sells arms to Africa.

00:21:12.483 --> 00:21:16.310
If they had stopped selling
arms there would be no conflict,

00:21:16.497 --> 00:21:19.942
and if there is conflict,
we would leave out

00:21:19.982 --> 00:21:22.349
and where are we going
to go better than in Europe?

00:21:22.525 --> 00:21:29.608
So, I think that they themselves
should look for the common good

00:21:29.633 --> 00:21:34.629
and look towards Africa.
Don't go to Africa to get rich,

00:21:34.654 --> 00:21:41.372
which is what a lot of businessmen
do there, or the government.

00:21:41.397 --> 00:21:43.177
The wealth of Africa is theirs.

00:21:43.202 --> 00:21:49.416
In Cape Verde, or Senegal itself, there
are many politicians who have a huge estate

00:21:49.441 --> 00:21:51.015
or huge hotels.

00:21:51.109 --> 00:21:56.390
Imagine what the costs of organizing
an economy in a constant state of war are.

00:21:56.415 --> 00:22:01.469
In Liberia we have had wars for 20 or
30 years, Sierra Leone has lived the same,

00:22:01.494 --> 00:22:04.261
in Chad it has lasted
practically half a century,...

00:22:04.345 --> 00:22:11.919
The Sahara case, the
case of Nigeria too, etc ...

00:22:11.944 --> 00:22:16.779
So, of course, that environment of
constant war, of constant violence,

00:22:16.900 --> 00:22:20.024
where progressive forces
do not finish imposing

00:22:20.049 --> 00:22:25.477
and the State does not move
towards planning the internal economy,

00:22:25.502 --> 00:22:27.716
is also the cause of migration.

00:22:27.741 --> 00:22:30.341
They do not migrate
only for economic reasons,

00:22:30.366 --> 00:22:34.427
they also migrate for political
reasons, ethnic persecution, etc ...

00:22:34.520 --> 00:22:37.033
That is why I believe
that most of them, or a

00:22:37.057 --> 00:22:39.857
large part of the immigrants
who are here today,

00:22:39.904 --> 00:22:43.263
in these camps,

00:22:43.288 --> 00:22:45.825
should be granted the
status of political shelter.

00:22:45.850 --> 00:22:50.516
Because really, ultimately, the
explanation for their migration is poverty.

00:22:50.541 --> 00:22:53.364
Well, okay, it is poverty,
but it is also the politics

00:22:53.389 --> 00:22:55.727
that they are suffering in those countries.

00:22:55.752 --> 00:22:58.755
It is similar to what happened in
Spain as a result of the Civil War.

00:22:58.780 --> 00:23:01.969
How many thousands of
Spaniards went into exile

00:23:02.001 --> 00:23:06.912
due to poverty? It was as a result
of a dictatorship that won the war.

00:23:06.937 --> 00:23:10.438
So let's imagine that in the
context of the African continent.

00:23:10.548 --> 00:23:14.758
There are 1 or 2 countries in Africa
where there have been no ​​putschs,

00:23:15.222 --> 00:23:18.143
in the rest there have been
one, two or three putschs.

00:23:18.143 --> 00:23:21.277
So this political upheaval

00:23:21.320 --> 00:23:25.968
is also at the base of the migration
of these peoples to Europe.

00:23:25.993 --> 00:23:27.685
And the Canary Islands
is the transit area.

00:23:33.645 --> 00:23:35.856
I would not recommend the sea to anyone.

00:23:35.981 --> 00:23:37.653
I have family

00:23:37.973 --> 00:23:40.997
who have tried to come,
they asked me for help,

00:23:41.022 --> 00:23:45.369
to give them money to be able
to take the boat but I refused.

00:23:45.394 --> 00:23:48.725
I wouldn't give a single euro
for someone to come here.

00:23:49.071 --> 00:23:54.388
To my relatives, cousins, nephews,

00:23:54.577 --> 00:23:59.411
I help them to maintain
their business, to stay there.

00:23:59.872 --> 00:24:04.558
But it is very difficult
for them to believe it,

00:24:04.731 --> 00:24:08.172
because they see that
here I have my job, my salary

00:24:08.204 --> 00:24:10.250
and I am building my house in Senegal.

00:24:10.275 --> 00:24:15.189
When I go there I have my house,
my car, my clothes and they think:

00:24:15.214 --> 00:24:19.449
"He doesn't want us to go
but he watches how he comes."

00:24:19.457 --> 00:24:24.643
And they can't have a
single block there. It's hard."

00:24:43.482 --> 00:24:45.154
The migratory phenomenon
is not going to disappear.

00:24:45.380 --> 00:24:49.080
It will continue to occur
as long as these countries

00:24:49.110 --> 00:24:52.814
do not obtain that real independence

00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:55.313
from foreign interests.

00:24:55.337 --> 00:24:58.946
That independence of the African
peoples with respect to the classes

00:24:58.979 --> 00:25:01.141
that are also linked to
the interests of imperialism.

00:25:01.166 --> 00:25:04.422
Linked to those classes
we call buyer bourgeoisies,

00:25:04.447 --> 00:25:06.688
attached to the interests of imperialism.

00:25:06.713 --> 00:25:10.721
That is, there are people
who live there, Africans

00:25:10.729 --> 00:25:15.716
who export bananas or cocoa or oil, etc.

00:25:15.804 --> 00:25:19.474
So this is, broadly speaking,
the economy of these countries.

00:25:28.739 --> 00:25:30.950
I have tried it with a
visa and it was not easy.

00:25:30.982 --> 00:25:33.762
I tried going from Italy,
and it was not easy either.

00:25:33.795 --> 00:25:39.058
And then I even tried it from Argentina,
but in the end it didn't work out.

00:25:39.216 --> 00:25:44.141
I had some friends with
whom I shared a room

00:25:44.166 --> 00:25:47.599
who had taken the patera,

00:25:47.723 --> 00:25:51.443
and I was told about the situation here

00:25:51.472 --> 00:25:53.613
and at that time I earned
100 euros a month there.

00:25:53.638 --> 00:25:58.695
I was told about the salaries and life here
and I decided to take the patera and come.

00:26:19.506 --> 00:26:22.616
They arrive and are
detained for 72 hours.

00:26:23.147 --> 00:26:24.255
Before COVID-19,

00:26:24.537 --> 00:26:28.138
the procedure was to comply
with the immigration regulations,

00:26:28.171 --> 00:26:30.678
but right now situations we’re living in do
not comply with the immigration regulations

00:26:30.703 --> 00:26:32.311
nor with the Criminal Code,

00:26:32.421 --> 00:26:34.311
not even comply with the
Criminal Procedure Law.

00:26:34.542 --> 00:26:36.717
It doesn’t comply with
the directives regarding

00:26:36.881 --> 00:26:39.085
the Application for
International Protection,

00:26:39.147 --> 00:26:41.256
it does not comply with essential minimums.

00:26:41.413 --> 00:26:45.560
They are currently in a true legal limbo.

00:26:45.929 --> 00:26:50.506
Not only a personal,
emotional, psychological,

00:26:50.531 --> 00:26:52.366
political and administrative limbo,

00:26:52.391 --> 00:26:53.819
but also a legal one.

00:26:53.921 --> 00:26:55.585
They have papers in order,

00:26:55.610 --> 00:26:59.249
because they have their
documentation to travel,

00:26:59.274 --> 00:27:02.577
their passport, their
pending shelter application

00:27:03.803 --> 00:27:06.694
and situations that arise at the border

00:27:06.959 --> 00:27:08.897
that violate fundamental rights.

00:27:09.319 --> 00:27:11.397
Before the health crisis,

00:27:11.710 --> 00:27:14.100
after a person arrived in a boat,

00:27:14.125 --> 00:27:16.053
whether from Mali, Senegal,

00:27:16.078 --> 00:27:17.897
Western Sahara or Morocco,

00:27:18.069 --> 00:27:19.999
a process was initiated to return them.

00:27:20.024 --> 00:27:22.319
In the first place,
on the beachfront,

00:27:22.344 --> 00:27:25.577
the population is
distinguished based on age,

00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:27.889
whether they are pregnant women,

00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:29.874
whether there are people who are ill,

00:27:29.899 --> 00:27:31.889
whether they are adults
in a general regime,

00:27:31.914 --> 00:27:34.085
whether they are
unaccompanied foreign minors.

00:27:34.351 --> 00:27:36.417
Depending on the circumstances,

00:27:36.764 --> 00:27:38.600
adults in a general regime too,

00:27:38.625 --> 00:27:41.186
who are healthy people and who
can be returned to their countries

00:27:41.211 --> 00:27:43.022
and who can also be detained,

00:27:43.319 --> 00:27:45.881
are taken to the national police stations,

00:27:46.060 --> 00:27:48.428
solely for that irregular entry,

00:27:48.453 --> 00:27:50.186
which is an administrative route.

00:27:50.350 --> 00:27:51.124
In other words,

00:27:51.149 --> 00:27:55.342
the fact that a person wants
to enter and does so irregularly,

00:27:55.367 --> 00:27:57.624
through a boat through
a non-authorized position,

00:27:57.787 --> 00:27:58.787
is not a crime.

00:28:10.163 --> 00:28:13.506
Only during 2020 the
number of minors that arrived,

00:28:13.531 --> 00:28:14.842
or presumed minors,

00:28:15.335 --> 00:28:17.061
was as large as the number of minors

00:28:17.086 --> 00:28:19.874
who arrived in the previous
crisis of the cayucos,

00:28:20.452 --> 00:28:22.986
and that has put the system in check,

00:28:23.240 --> 00:28:25.615
in this case, the system
of protection of minors,

00:28:25.788 --> 00:28:28.249
because the number of
children object of tutelary

00:28:28.274 --> 00:28:32.381
is extremely large for a territory as

00:28:32.406 --> 00:28:34.678
small and fragmented as this one.

00:28:34.905 --> 00:28:36.936
That makes the situation unsustainable.

00:28:36.961 --> 00:28:39.303
First, because we do not have,

00:28:39.328 --> 00:28:40.913
or we did not have,

00:28:40.938 --> 00:28:42.633
especially at the end of 2019,

00:28:42.658 --> 00:28:46.006
which was when this entire
crisis began, that rebound,

00:28:46.461 --> 00:28:49.303
we did not have the necessary
means to be able to attend.

00:28:49.858 --> 00:28:51.975
A very great effort had to be made,

00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:54.803
in which many other public
institutions have also collaborated,

00:28:54.828 --> 00:28:56.460
such as town halls or councils,

00:28:56.717 --> 00:28:58.756
handing over all types of facilities

00:28:59.296 --> 00:29:00.960
that could be accommodations

00:29:00.985 --> 00:29:03.530
that could allow to house

00:29:03.555 --> 00:29:05.944
all that number of minors

00:29:05.969 --> 00:29:07.389
who were starting to arrive,

00:29:07.414 --> 00:29:10.389
and that weekly there were 100, 150 ...

00:29:11.170 --> 00:29:15.545
And with a need to generate those places

00:29:15.570 --> 00:29:17.428
because you have to respond.

00:29:17.882 --> 00:29:19.600
And you have to give an
answer for a simple reason,

00:29:19.625 --> 00:29:21.147
and that is that you
have to abide by the law.

00:29:21.233 --> 00:29:23.139
We are not making up anything new,

00:29:23.164 --> 00:29:25.506
attending to this does not
respond to a political color.

00:29:25.531 --> 00:29:26.889
Attending this
corresponds to responding

00:29:28.368 --> 00:29:32.100
to what the politicians before

00:29:32.125 --> 00:29:36.163
us legislated in the recent past,

00:29:36.405 --> 00:29:37.819
and that is to abide by the law.

00:29:37.844 --> 00:29:40.850
Abiding by the law
today is extremely difficult.

00:29:56.483 --> 00:29:58.549
We arrived here in Gran Canaria

00:29:58.574 --> 00:30:01.866
and were taken to the police station,

00:30:02.146 --> 00:30:03.498
where we stayed for three days.

00:30:03.526 --> 00:30:05.717
Three days are 72 hours,

00:30:05.921 --> 00:30:08.124
and later the judicial process took place.

00:30:08.499 --> 00:30:13.655
We were taken to a Gran Canaria’s campsite

00:30:14.045 --> 00:30:16.803
and when I got there I
realized that it was different,

00:30:17.319 --> 00:30:21.420
because it looked like our campsite.

00:30:21.445 --> 00:30:24.733
I watched as people were
with their red tracksuits,

00:30:24.758 --> 00:30:26.210
stones and everything.

00:30:26.235 --> 00:30:27.967
I wondered “what’s this?

00:30:28.366 --> 00:30:32.694
I don’t want to stay here,

00:30:32.719 --> 00:30:37.460
I want to get back home or
get out of here, not being here.

00:30:37.843 --> 00:30:40.131
Why are those 72 hours necessary?

00:30:40.390 --> 00:30:42.944
That’s because, as they are
detained for irregular immigration,

00:30:42.969 --> 00:30:44.444
their details have to be taken down.

00:30:44.469 --> 00:30:45.374
What’s the meaning of that?

00:30:45.399 --> 00:30:46.399
To ask them: “Hey, Ahmed.

00:30:46.670 --> 00:30:48.061
What’s your name? Ah, Ahmed.

00:30:48.086 --> 00:30:48.842
Your surname?

00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:50.233
Where are you from?

00:30:50.491 --> 00:30:52.616
Who’s your mother?
Who’s your father?

00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:53.358
Who are you?”

00:30:53.383 --> 00:30:54.405
We need all those details

00:30:54.430 --> 00:30:56.545
to notify them of their return agreement.

00:30:56.725 --> 00:30:58.967
Without that, they can’t be returned.

00:30:59.999 --> 00:31:07.827
Their fingerprints are
identified in front of a lawyer,

00:31:07.852 --> 00:31:10.630
an interpreter, a national
police officer and themselves,

00:31:10.655 --> 00:31:12.928
the immigrant who has come to the country.

00:31:13.450 --> 00:31:15.412
We are aware of cases about people

00:31:15.437 --> 00:31:17.749
whose rights haven’t been respected.

00:31:17.929 --> 00:31:20.646
They couldn’t even meet their lawyers

00:31:20.671 --> 00:31:23.770
and tell them that,
before signing anything,

00:31:23.795 --> 00:31:28.717
they want to know their rights.

00:31:29.017 --> 00:31:30.960
There are cases of people
seeking international protection,

00:31:30.985 --> 00:31:33.288
because they have been
fleeing from war, just like in Mali.

00:31:33.510 --> 00:31:35.288
Other cases are seeking
international protection

00:31:35.313 --> 00:31:37.420
because of their sexual condition,

00:31:37.445 --> 00:31:39.366
which is penalized in
Morocco, for example.

00:31:39.391 --> 00:31:41.897
They want to know their lawyers and their
rights for starting the legal process.

00:31:41.922 --> 00:31:43.960
There are, also, cases o
foreign unaccompanied minors

00:31:43.985 --> 00:31:46.038
who have been identified as adults,

00:31:46.063 --> 00:31:47.483
even when they have said they’re minors.

00:31:47.649 --> 00:31:49.819
All these things are happening,

00:31:49.844 --> 00:31:52.686
so they can’t be ensured,
as they should be.

00:31:52.990 --> 00:31:55.702
All this begins when a
patera arrives at port,

00:31:56.257 --> 00:31:57.991
if we were able to resolve

00:31:58.016 --> 00:31:59.686
what happens on arrival at port,

00:31:59.944 --> 00:32:01.991
that who has to be reviewing,

00:32:02.016 --> 00:32:04.506
is the police, but if there could be,

00:32:04.531 --> 00:32:06.725
as there is in other parts
of the peninsular territory

00:32:06.750 --> 00:32:08.335
where there are
also arrivals of boats.

00:32:08.360 --> 00:32:10.764
If in the Canary Islands
there could be an entity,

00:32:10.789 --> 00:32:11.783
for example,

00:32:11.808 --> 00:32:15.696
an international entity linked
to the protection of children.

00:32:16.257 --> 00:32:18.756
Because by protocol it could be

00:32:18.781 --> 00:32:20.936
but the government should not,

00:32:20.961 --> 00:32:22.295
cannot do that function.

00:32:23.077 --> 00:32:26.085
It would help a lot to
discriminate from minute one,

00:32:26.764 --> 00:32:28.670
who is older and who is younger.

00:32:30.280 --> 00:32:32.694
I think that what the autonomous community

00:32:32.719 --> 00:32:33.850
does in this case is

00:32:33.875 --> 00:32:35.553
that when the thing is already there,

00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:37.616
when the error has already occurred,

00:32:37.640 --> 00:32:39.311
it is necessary to intervene to correct it.

00:32:39.952 --> 00:32:41.233
But I go a little further,

00:32:41.258 --> 00:32:45.483
what I demand is that we be
able to detect this at the beginning.

00:32:45.700 --> 00:32:47.358
Because detecting this at the beginning,

00:32:47.383 --> 00:32:51.936
makes that only with a
good start the gear can work.

00:32:52.066 --> 00:32:55.928
There are minors in centres
where they shouldn’t be,

00:32:56.249 --> 00:33:00.186
they are mixed with adults in hotels,

00:33:00.211 --> 00:33:01.889
and that’s illegal.

00:33:02.069 --> 00:33:05.006
Minors can’t stay with adults.

00:33:07.054 --> 00:33:10.061
At the moment when they arrived,

00:33:10.086 --> 00:33:11.983
the pandemic was already here,

00:33:12.971 --> 00:33:17.131
and that makes some people
have been here for five or six months,

00:33:17.601 --> 00:33:22.608
and they don’t know whether
they are being returned or not.

00:33:22.905 --> 00:33:26.606
What I don’t understand
is why they’re not allowed

00:33:26.631 --> 00:33:29.577
to come here and look for a better life.

00:33:30.320 --> 00:33:32.874
People that come to the Canary
Islands don’t want to stay here,

00:33:32.899 --> 00:33:35.366
most of them have
families and not just in Spain

00:33:35.391 --> 00:33:42.264
but in Italy, Belgium,
France and other countries.

00:33:42.849 --> 00:33:45.452
They just want to move on.

00:33:45.606 --> 00:33:50.663
The protection system is
supporting a large number of spots,

00:33:50.688 --> 00:33:54.193
occupied by adults, and at the same time,

00:33:56.655 --> 00:34:00.506
the resources that are actually for adults,

00:34:00.531 --> 00:34:04.037
as temporary centres for
foreigners and detention centres

00:34:04.062 --> 00:34:11.137
(though detention centres
came later with the crisis),

00:34:11.162 --> 00:34:17.631
the campsites, are full of
minors who shouldn’t be there.

00:34:18.256 --> 00:34:20.498
In fact, no one should
be in a place like that.

00:34:20.523 --> 00:34:23.514
It’s important to make it clear,

00:34:25.980 --> 00:34:29.584
campsites are not a suitable place.

00:34:30.107 --> 00:34:33.584
We, as a society in
general and specifically

00:34:33.609 --> 00:34:35.990
as a Canarian society
and on a political level,

00:34:36.015 --> 00:34:38.725
should have learned from the past crisis,

00:34:38.750 --> 00:34:41.193
because the arrival of
patera is nothing new.

00:34:44.194 --> 00:34:46.860
We’re talking about something recurring,

00:34:47.536 --> 00:34:49.803
because geographically
we are the southern border

00:34:49.959 --> 00:34:53.248
and we will never stop being.

00:34:58.512 --> 00:35:02.373
There was enough time
to arrange their paperwork

00:35:02.427 --> 00:35:05.528
flights and everything
because they didn't want to stay.

00:35:05.631 --> 00:35:08.724
How can you make more than 7.000 people

00:35:08.915 --> 00:35:12.990
in a campsite in the Canary
Islands? It’s such a small place,

00:35:13.080 --> 00:35:16.290
it’s uncomfortable and
they wouldn’t want to stay.

00:35:16.315 --> 00:35:17.969
They want to go on with their lives,

00:35:18.038 --> 00:35:21.860
get their own places… and what they’re
doing is being there to eat and sleep.

00:35:22.028 --> 00:35:24.958
I think it’s not fair

00:35:25.061 --> 00:35:27.471
that they risk their lives
in search of a better living,

00:35:27.560 --> 00:35:30.666
for themselves and their families

00:35:30.691 --> 00:35:33.736
and they end up in a
campsite, for five or six months,

00:35:33.777 --> 00:35:43.561
not telling them whether
they will be returned or not.

00:35:43.812 --> 00:35:46.795
All the people that are
women, pregnant or not,

00:35:46.820 --> 00:35:50.380
depending on the situation,
women with minors,

00:35:50.405 --> 00:35:52.966
foreign unaccompanied
minors or sick people

00:35:53.012 --> 00:35:55.076
are cases where the
returning is not applied.

00:35:55.100 --> 00:35:57.680
International protection applicants,

00:35:57.705 --> 00:36:00.407
such as people that are fleeing from wars

00:36:00.432 --> 00:36:02.846
or persecutions in
cases of ideological or

00:36:02.870 --> 00:36:05.935
political beliefs, sexual
conditions, ethnicity,...

00:36:05.960 --> 00:36:08.454
These people should not be returned,

00:36:08.479 --> 00:36:12.860
as laws of immigration say. Whilst their
paperwork is not done, they should stay.

00:36:12.885 --> 00:36:16.019
Sadly, nowadays we’re in a
crazy situation, because we’re

00:36:16.043 --> 00:36:19.177
between what the law says
and what’s actually happening.

00:36:19.948 --> 00:36:25.310
It is outrageous that those
children are in adult campsites,

00:36:25.335 --> 00:36:30.722
because we could have done
better since the beginning.

00:36:31.185 --> 00:36:35.686
But it's outrageous as well
having more than 600 people

00:36:35.733 --> 00:36:38.249
that we know are adults,

00:36:38.274 --> 00:36:41.163
because of their physical
appearance, in campsites for minors.

00:36:41.315 --> 00:36:52.453
I know that because we have
identified people born in the year 1991.

00:36:52.556 --> 00:36:56.014
These people are already 30 years old.

00:36:56.039 --> 00:37:00.642
Even a 41-year-old person
has been identified in that place,

00:37:00.667 --> 00:37:03.067
that is only for minors.

00:37:03.091 --> 00:37:06.127
Nobody is focusing on
the problem other than

00:37:06.152 --> 00:37:09.222
the tutelary entity that
protects these minors.

00:37:09.300 --> 00:37:10.683
It’s alarming.

00:37:10.708 --> 00:37:13.685
I criticize and I defend that,

00:37:13.710 --> 00:37:16.980
whoever that wants to guarantee rights,

00:37:17.005 --> 00:37:20.565
to manifestate and demonstrate, with facts,

00:37:21.283 --> 00:37:27.058
that they also criticize, because
this problem is unacceptable.

00:37:39.850 --> 00:37:42.860
Before the health crisis occurred,

00:37:42.896 --> 00:37:47.528
people were detained for 72 hours,
they could not stay for more than 72 hours

00:37:47.555 --> 00:37:51.501
and, if they intended to return, if that
return was not guaranteed

00:37:51.526 --> 00:37:54.654
in those 72 hours, a precautionary
measure was requested.

00:37:54.670 --> 00:37:58.565
There were other solutions for women
and unaccompanied foreign minors,

00:37:58.590 --> 00:38:02.453
but in general, for adults,
men who can be returned,

00:38:02.550 --> 00:38:05.578
a precautionary measure was
requested. What does that mean?

00:38:05.603 --> 00:38:07.800
Well, the immigration and
immigration brigades, to

00:38:07.824 --> 00:38:10.020
execute the return to
their countries of origin,

00:38:10.045 --> 00:38:13.554
have to request a precautionary
measure to guarantee it.

00:38:13.579 --> 00:38:16.189
For example, internment
in foreign detention

00:38:16.213 --> 00:38:18.823
centers for a period of
no more than 60 days.

00:38:18.848 --> 00:38:21.439
They request a judge
from the local police station

00:38:21.470 --> 00:38:24.537
to authorize them to intern
that person for 60 days

00:38:24.545 --> 00:38:26.818
so that they can identify
them, prepare all the

00:38:26.842 --> 00:38:29.364
documentation with their
countries, consulates ...

00:38:29.389 --> 00:38:32.271
so that they tell them "this
day at this time you have a flight,

00:38:32.287 --> 00:38:35.026
you can take 30 Senegalese,

00:38:35.034 --> 00:38:37.182
you can take 20 Maghrebines
to their countries ... "

00:38:37.198 --> 00:38:40.101
Well, this was before covid

00:38:40.399 --> 00:38:43.200
and that guaranteed what
the immigration regulations say,

00:38:43.302 --> 00:38:46.045
but what we have right now since last year

00:38:46.171 --> 00:38:49.580
is that the detention
centers for foreigners don't

00:38:49.605 --> 00:38:53.132
comply with some
essential sanitary measures...

00:38:53.181 --> 00:38:57.525
Neither sanitary, nor legal,
nor medical nor of any kind,

00:38:57.620 --> 00:39:00.711
they were closed, they
were emptied of all people

00:39:00.736 --> 00:39:04.346
because the control judges understood
that the possibility of contagion

00:39:04.370 --> 00:39:07.617
in these spaces due to the
covid issue was real and effective,

00:39:07.620 --> 00:39:09.992
so all these centers had to be emptied.

00:39:10.017 --> 00:39:13.817
But currently we have
8 spaces of this type,

00:39:13.840 --> 00:39:16.647
of which in the Canary
Islands we have 3 closely.

00:39:16.672 --> 00:39:19.178
Two, one in Hoya Fría in
Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the

00:39:19.202 --> 00:39:21.708
other in Barranco Seco in
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,

00:39:21.733 --> 00:39:23.870
and a third, which is closed,

00:39:23.895 --> 00:39:27.663
but also in which an investment of millions
and millions of euros has been made.

00:39:27.688 --> 00:39:31.982
Very curious for a CIE that is closed,
which is in Fuerteventura, in El Matorral.

00:39:32.006 --> 00:39:35.329
Before the health crisis occurred,

00:39:35.354 --> 00:39:39.264
minimums could be guaranteed,
which we could agree or not with,

00:39:39.280 --> 00:39:42.596
because we do not believe in
these spaces that deprive migrants,

00:39:42.621 --> 00:39:44.596
who have not committed
any crime., of freedom.

00:39:44.629 --> 00:39:49.058
Imagine that for not putting on the mask
you are deprived of freedom for 60 days.

00:39:49.083 --> 00:39:50.551
It would seem surreal to all of us.

00:39:50.576 --> 00:39:53.544
Well, that happens with migrants, and
it happens here in the Canary Islands,

00:39:53.569 --> 00:39:56.481
so it is also necessary to say “hey,
what does the Canary Islands want

00:39:56.528 --> 00:39:59.198
and what does the population living
here in the Canary Islands want?

00:39:59.233 --> 00:40:01.247
The Canary Islands to
be this? A deprivation

00:40:01.271 --> 00:40:03.284
of freedom for migrants
who are in transit?

00:40:03.309 --> 00:40:06.214
Or that everyone can follow
their paths and their transit freely

00:40:06.239 --> 00:40:08.908
because in the end we
are all in life for transit?

00:40:08.916 --> 00:40:11.329
And if I can go to Australia or Russia,

00:40:11.354 --> 00:40:14.947
why can't a migrant leave their
country with a corresponding visa

00:40:14.972 --> 00:40:20.555
and have to risk their life to get here?
In addition, afterwards we imprison them,

00:40:20.580 --> 00:40:22.317
deprive them of their
freedom, we do not give

00:40:22.341 --> 00:40:24.078
them rights, we do not
give them guarantees

00:40:24.103 --> 00:40:26.539
and above all we hope
that they will accept it.

00:40:32.440 --> 00:40:36.421
At the moment of someone’s
arrival, they get into a judicial process,

00:40:36.440 --> 00:40:39.531
they must receive a
foreigner identity number.

00:40:45.795 --> 00:40:47.879
Identifications haven’t
been done correctly,

00:40:47.904 --> 00:40:50.716
and there are some people
who haven’t been even identified.

00:40:50.975 --> 00:40:53.806
And people who are where they shouln't be.

00:40:54.513 --> 00:40:56.294
It makes me angry.

00:40:56.319 --> 00:40:59.187
No one has received their
Foreign National Identity Number.

00:40:59.212 --> 00:41:00.368
There have been some mix-ups.

00:41:00.393 --> 00:41:04.458
A few Gambian guys were identified
asselegalese with a senegalese identity number.

00:41:04.483 --> 00:41:06.179
Even when they had a gambian passport.

00:41:06.319 --> 00:41:09.538
Some boys, who are underage,
have been identified as adults.

00:41:09.563 --> 00:41:13.674
Some Guineans have been
identified as Senegalese.

00:41:13.699 --> 00:41:20.185
These cases have been
reported but it was for nothing.

00:41:20.210 --> 00:41:22.700
If we visit a police station

00:41:22.725 --> 00:41:26.466
that may be in charge of
processing asylum on the island,

00:41:26.500 --> 00:41:30.125
we’ll find people who are immersed in a
bureaucratic and  even psychological limbo,

00:41:30.150 --> 00:41:34.657
waiting for an appointment to
request international protection,

00:41:34.665 --> 00:41:38.961
which is a right every citizen
holds, just by being human.

00:41:38.986 --> 00:41:43.630
We find undocumented people

00:41:43.660 --> 00:41:48.532
because large non-governmental organizations
have kept their passports ot national IDs,

00:41:48.557 --> 00:41:51.635
documents needed to
formulate these requests.

00:41:51.660 --> 00:41:55.333
We also come across harsh situations,

00:41:55.358 --> 00:41:57.897
I will explain it very clearly:

00:41:57.922 --> 00:42:01.589
Spain has signed return
agreements especially with Senegal

00:42:01.614 --> 00:42:03.832
and Morocco.

00:42:03.857 --> 00:42:07.980
Mali is in a state of war,
hence they cannot be returned.

00:42:08.005 --> 00:42:12.088
And for Gambia, the government
has refused to sign an agreement.

00:42:12.113 --> 00:42:16.233
We find Gambians who have
been registered by the police

00:42:16.258 --> 00:42:20.236
as Senegalese, a country with
which there is a return agreement.

00:42:20.261 --> 00:42:25.130
Then, being present  is key to
avoiding these sorts of situations

00:42:25.155 --> 00:42:28.955
and trying to overcome them. There
we are in this civil society organization.

00:42:34.217 --> 00:42:37.133
It is always one person for several,

00:42:37.158 --> 00:42:41.367
a policeman to notify return agreements
without knowing who this person is,

00:42:41.392 --> 00:42:47.156
and on the other hand, because now,
when the 72-hour detention is broken,

00:42:47.181 --> 00:42:49.111
it is no longer at the police
station, you know that he is at

00:42:49.135 --> 00:42:51.065
the police station and that
you go as a lawyer to assist him,

00:42:51.090 --> 00:42:54.454
but that he is in Arguineguín and
that you are not allowed to access.

00:42:54.479 --> 00:42:57.122
That he is in Arguineguín
and that you sit in a small room

00:42:57.147 --> 00:43:02.398
to read and sign a return agreement without
seeing the person you are assisting.

00:43:02.423 --> 00:43:05.997
And on the other hand, that
they are now in macro centres

00:43:06.022 --> 00:43:09.708
because the link is broken when
this health crisis has occurred, where?

00:43:09.733 --> 00:43:13.363
In that there are no longer
72h precautionary measures

00:43:13.388 --> 00:43:15.897
that could exist such
as detention centres for foreigners,

00:43:15.921 --> 00:43:19.102
passport withdrawals,
periodic presentations

00:43:19.127 --> 00:43:25.108
or any other type of measures, or even
the release of women and so on... why?

00:43:25.133 --> 00:43:30.166
Because they go to a humanitarian care
programme with whatever NGO, Red Cross and

00:43:30.191 --> 00:43:34.281
so on, or White Cross, but now it's a
hotchpotch. Now we have a fusion of everything.

00:43:34.611 --> 00:43:38.914
This approach of camps that do
not resolve and lack inclusion policies,

00:43:39.634 --> 00:43:44.755
which neither does it speak of transfers,
nor even of seeking comprehensive care ...

00:43:44.780 --> 00:43:46.344
it does not incorporate
any of that, it is always

00:43:46.368 --> 00:43:47.866
about keeping them
until they can be deported

00:43:48.107 --> 00:43:51.256
Only those who belong to a
vulnerable group are transferred,

00:43:51.515 --> 00:43:56.300
and that is also leading people to
requesting international protection

00:43:56.460 --> 00:44:00.956
as the only way to avoid being deported
or returned to their country of origin.

00:44:08.846 --> 00:44:13.065
A day when just a boat arrives

00:44:13.090 --> 00:44:16.573
and the police can do their job,
which is to review those people,

00:44:17.884 --> 00:44:22.758
is not the same as comparing it with a
day when 14 boats arrive with 700 people.

00:44:22.946 --> 00:44:25.086
Obviously, the workload cannot be the same,

00:44:25.149 --> 00:44:29.360
and that also has to
lead us to reflection.

00:44:29.485 --> 00:44:33.886
There are certain moments
due to the current crisis situation

00:44:33.910 --> 00:44:37.042
in which there is a need to
reinforce personnel in all areas:

00:44:37.105 --> 00:44:41.456
police, health care services, ...

00:44:41.636 --> 00:44:45.167
all resources have to
be there at that moment,

00:44:45.236 --> 00:44:47.612
and you have to multiply them
because numbers demand it.

00:44:47.760 --> 00:44:49.221
If not, we
all know the outcome.

00:44:49.619 --> 00:44:52.260
With the current health
crisis, it is no longer

00:44:52.354 --> 00:44:53.838
“I can take you to the police station”,

00:44:53.880 --> 00:44:57.861
but “you stay somewhere else
we have and that we can manage”.

00:44:57.909 --> 00:45:00.166
We’ve seen it in Arguineguín,
on the Arguineguin pier.

00:45:00.191 --> 00:45:03.932
We’ve seen in the CATEs
of Barranco Seco in this case.

00:45:04.010 --> 00:45:08.797
We’ve seen it in the provisional camps set in
different islands such as Lanzarote and Fuerteventura,

00:45:08.828 --> 00:45:11.422
and we‘ve also seen it
in docks, mainly in docks

00:45:11.453 --> 00:45:14.763
where people have been
left in these conditions,

00:45:14.818 --> 00:45:17.059
which didn’t even comply
with the sanitary measures.

00:45:17.114 --> 00:45:18.864
Just because they
didn’t find any other place,

00:45:18.889 --> 00:45:21.176
because they understood
they couldn’t find another space.

00:45:21.406 --> 00:45:25.086
During that period of time provided
by immigration regulations, 72 hours,

00:45:25.133 --> 00:45:28.235
a person cannot be detained any longer.

00:45:28.360 --> 00:45:32.618
Neither the caucasian, nor the
migrant who comes from abroad.

00:45:32.806 --> 00:45:35.415
This is national regulation
that must be complied with.

00:45:35.540 --> 00:45:38.228
Outside of those 72 hours, it is
already considered an illegal detention.

00:45:38.384 --> 00:45:41.040
If it is considered an illegal detention,
it is considered an illegal detention

00:45:41.103 --> 00:45:42.618
for Pepe, who is white,

00:45:42.657 --> 00:45:44.454
and for Loueila, who is black.

00:45:44.517 --> 00:45:46.931
So we can’t allow this to happen

00:45:46.962 --> 00:45:48.470
and it has happened in the Canary Islands.

00:45:48.532 --> 00:45:53.046
At the Arguineguín dock there are people
who have been under national police custody

00:45:53.140 --> 00:45:56.030
for 15 days, 20 days, a month ...

00:45:56.130 --> 00:45:58.223
without having access to the basics.

00:46:04.638 --> 00:46:09.903
It’s becoming more and more like other
situations that occurred in Europe during WWII

00:46:09.989 --> 00:46:12.653
or in the former Yugoslavia at one point.

00:46:12.762 --> 00:46:16.769
When we talk about those
concentration camps, where violence

00:46:16.940 --> 00:46:24.058
is part of the horror these
people are experiencing,

00:46:24.200 --> 00:46:27.081
which is obviously affecting their bodies,

00:46:27.121 --> 00:46:31.402
because we could see it yesterday
when we saw images of blood,

00:46:31.620 --> 00:46:36.097
but also in the heads of people,
terror can inhabit both, body and mind.

00:46:36.260 --> 00:46:42.359
And I believe that this is a never
seen before situation anywhere else,

00:46:42.414 --> 00:46:43.898
as it’s happening now.

00:46:44.020 --> 00:46:47.250
When a person is detained

00:46:47.320 --> 00:46:53.742
for no more than 72 hours, it would
be illegal for more than 72 hours,

00:46:54.805 --> 00:47:00.351
in a temporary care center for foreigners,
which is intended to affiliate people,

00:47:00.843 --> 00:47:04.523
and usually to run health tests since
covid-19 has complicated everything.

00:47:05.992 --> 00:47:09.453
Spending more than 72 hours as it
happened in the Arguineguín dock

00:47:09.539 --> 00:47:12.210
or has sometimes happened
in the CATE of Barranco Seco

00:47:12.242 --> 00:47:14.992
is illegal, that is illegal.

00:47:15.675 --> 00:47:20.023
In addition, it is also illegal for people not
to be guaranteed effective judicial protection,

00:47:20.125 --> 00:47:22.484
and it is also illegal for
people to encounter obstacles

00:47:22.562 --> 00:47:24.937
or difficulties in accessing the
international protection procedure,

00:47:25.242 --> 00:47:29.296
or that they cannot move even
when they have a valid return order

00:47:30.334 --> 00:47:33.890
and the law allows you to travel to any
other territory than the Canary Islands,

00:47:34.360 --> 00:47:36.726
to the peninsula for
example, that is illegal.

00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:41.179
The vision of humanitarian
reception in camps

00:47:41.281 --> 00:47:43.661
presumes these are open
centers where people can

00:47:43.842 --> 00:47:45.763
enter and leave, and transit freely.

00:47:46.115 --> 00:47:47.790
What I think is unworthy,

00:47:47.920 --> 00:47:51.930
and maybe we can question
ourselves from the ethical point of view,

00:47:52.305 --> 00:47:56.063
even from the political and social challenge
that assuming such means point of view,

00:47:56.520 --> 00:47:59.665
we can question whether that might
be the formula, we believe it is not.

00:48:00.040 --> 00:48:02.493
People can come and go and
they can leave it [the camp],

00:48:02.571 --> 00:48:05.133
if they leave it they place themselves
in a much more precarious situation.

00:48:05.240 --> 00:48:06.240
That’s the reality,

00:48:06.290 --> 00:48:08.766
because immobility, frustration

00:48:08.899 --> 00:48:12.204
and anguish are forcing
you to make decisions,

00:48:12.267 --> 00:48:15.368
perhaps a little hasty,
that lead you nowhere.

00:48:21.185 --> 00:48:24.747
"Spain, don't let these people go up,
because they are coming up to France.”

00:48:24.825 --> 00:48:27.435
We already see that right now the
borders between France and Spain

00:48:27.506 --> 00:48:30.795
are also being guarded by French
police as they do not want them to pass,

00:48:30.991 --> 00:48:33.615
all the people who have gone
up from the Canary Islands.

00:48:33.717 --> 00:48:36.131
And they’ve said "I don't
want you to let these people in".

00:48:36.480 --> 00:48:39.908
So, in a way, what have they done? They’ve
made the Canary Islands into a prison,

00:48:39.971 --> 00:48:43.275
a prison for migrants

00:48:43.315 --> 00:48:47.291
not foreseen by the regulations
to happen or that it will be so,

00:48:47.424 --> 00:48:50.893
because they have the right to
move freely, just like you and me.

00:48:51.010 --> 00:48:54.490
They have their full valid passport
and they have a plane ticket.

00:48:54.693 --> 00:48:59.428
I have interviewed airlines,
shipping companies… one by one.

00:48:59.584 --> 00:49:00.748
And they all point out
to me the same thing

00:49:00.780 --> 00:49:03.279
that their documentation
and security agencies

00:49:03.340 --> 00:49:07.816
state that they don't care whether they
have their Schengen visa stamp or not,

00:49:07.870 --> 00:49:11.949
as long as they have their
passport complete and in force.

00:49:12.145 --> 00:49:15.941
And these people have a complete and
valid passport, as well as their ticket.

00:49:16.100 --> 00:49:20.003
Therefore, the measures
to limit this fundamental right

00:49:20.080 --> 00:49:21.979
have come from the Home Affairs Ministry.

00:49:23.956 --> 00:49:27.378
We continue and will continue
to carry out immigration policy.

00:49:27.403 --> 00:49:29.768
Next Friday I will be travelling to Morocco

00:49:29.800 --> 00:49:32.753
for the same purposes, and
with the same circumstances,

00:49:32.780 --> 00:49:35.487
order to continue, increase and implement

00:49:35.512 --> 00:49:38.172
the fight against mafias and guarantee,

00:49:38.197 --> 00:49:42.135
in this case, as legal migration
proceeds, regular and orderly.

00:49:44.253 --> 00:49:47.050
There is no unified criteria from
of the police general direction

00:49:47.075 --> 00:49:48.143
and the Home Affairs Ministry,

00:49:48.261 --> 00:49:49.893
that is, if you speak with any of them:

00:49:50.040 --> 00:49:52.040
First, there’s no document whatsoever

00:49:52.152 --> 00:49:55.854
where the criteria followed to limit a
fundamental right for migrants appears,

00:49:56.370 --> 00:49:58.510
but in addition, the most surreal thing

00:49:58.721 --> 00:50:00.385
is that there is no unified criteria.

00:50:00.410 --> 00:50:01.260
What does that mean?

00:50:01.285 --> 00:50:02.753
It means they have
said “Hey Canary Islands,

00:50:02.778 --> 00:50:04.253
guarantee us the guarding
of ports and airports

00:50:04.280 --> 00:50:05.276
so that no one leaves.”

00:50:07.050 --> 00:50:07.823
What has happened?

00:50:07.927 --> 00:50:11.042
In smaller islands it has not
been possible to guarantee such,

00:50:11.172 --> 00:50:13.096
because the means are not the same,

00:50:13.456 --> 00:50:14.714
so that in certain islands

00:50:14.739 --> 00:50:17.245
people have been able to leave
with no problem using their passport.

00:50:17.793 --> 00:50:21.464
This already breaks a bit
with what they want to do,

00:50:21.489 --> 00:50:23.260
which for them would be a disaster.

00:50:23.542 --> 00:50:25.862
On the other hand, in the provinces,

00:50:25.887 --> 00:50:27.596
where the Las Palmas
de Gran Canaria airport

00:50:27.621 --> 00:50:29.635
and the Tenerife North airport are located,

00:50:29.660 --> 00:50:33.620
these [airports]have been most
guarded by the national police in the area,

00:50:33.645 --> 00:50:35.432
because they are the competent
authority in border matters.

00:50:35.925 --> 00:50:38.745
And also, that on many
occasions it is even frustrating

00:50:38.770 --> 00:50:41.901
because it does not ensure the
principle of legal certainty or equality,

00:50:41.926 --> 00:50:44.675
because it's completely arbitrary,
up to the officer on duty at that time.

00:50:45.105 --> 00:50:48.503
You can go to the port and maybe
the policemen on duty that afternoon

00:50:48.528 --> 00:50:52.050
are willing to turn a blind eye
because they believe it’s unfair,

00:50:52.448 --> 00:50:54.362
but you can go to Las Palmas in the morning

00:50:54.387 --> 00:50:57.190
and there’s the toughest
chief inspector of them all

00:50:57.215 --> 00:50:59.050
who will guarantee that nobody leaves,

00:50:59.220 --> 00:51:01.198
based on nothing,

00:51:01.223 --> 00:51:04.027
because there’s no
regulation that prevents

00:51:04.052 --> 00:51:06.604
these people from
being able to move freely.

00:51:10.925 --> 00:51:13.525
One day they called us in the afternoon

00:51:13.550 --> 00:51:15.495
told us "you’re leaving tomorrow"

00:51:16.550 --> 00:51:20.292
and we asked where, but they
won't tell you where you are going,

00:51:20.612 --> 00:51:22.245
they tell you "you’re leaving tomorrow.

00:51:22.270 --> 00:51:25.393
At 6am both, Group 1 and 3”

00:51:26.011 --> 00:51:31.495
And I remember that it
was the month of Ramadan

00:51:31.520 --> 00:51:34.315
when they told us we were leaving
and we didn’t know what to do.

00:51:36.995 --> 00:51:40.378
They just came to pick us
up and put us on a plane...

00:51:41.559 --> 00:51:46.612
We didn't know where we were going

00:51:46.637 --> 00:51:51.159
and I had done Ramadan that day but in
the end I decided to stop doing Ramadan

00:51:51.184 --> 00:51:53.635
because I didn't know if I was going
to Senegal or going to the peninsula,

00:51:53.660 --> 00:51:55.245
we had no idea.

00:51:55.480 --> 00:51:58.268
And when the plane left,

00:51:58.471 --> 00:52:02.448
there was a friend that I met in the camp,

00:52:02.700 --> 00:52:05.456
I said “Do you know where
we are going? Senegal?"

00:52:05.581 --> 00:52:08.596
He told me "Abdou, the sun is on this side,

00:52:08.810 --> 00:52:10.932
if it is on this side it means
we’re going to the peninsula,

00:52:10.957 --> 00:52:13.081
if it were the other side we
would be going to Senegal."

00:52:13.292 --> 00:52:18.190
In the end what he said was
true and they took us to Madrid.

00:52:23.331 --> 00:52:24.986
Different groups of people,

00:52:25.011 --> 00:52:27.901
collectively in the hotels in
the south of Gran Canaria,

00:52:28.245 --> 00:52:31.143
which is where the most people
have come in recent months,

00:52:31.448 --> 00:52:34.104
said that they did not know
who their lawyers were,

00:52:34.257 --> 00:52:36.143
that they did not know
what they had signed,

00:52:36.296 --> 00:52:39.370
that they did not know how
long they had been detained,

00:52:39.901 --> 00:52:41.159
This is unacceptable

00:52:41.596 --> 00:52:43.807
because if I don't do it to Pepe,

00:52:43.847 --> 00:52:46.479
who has committed 5 criminal acts,

00:52:46.722 --> 00:52:48.104
who’s a drug dealer,

00:52:48.129 --> 00:52:50.018
who has committed assaults of all kinds,

00:52:50.043 --> 00:52:51.966
who’s an aggressor and has ...

00:52:51.991 --> 00:52:54.409
If I do not do it to Pepe,
because Pepe has his rights,

00:52:54.688 --> 00:52:57.385
why are we not doing it to
Ahmed, who comes irregularly,

00:52:57.410 --> 00:52:59.300
who has not committed any crime

00:52:59.325 --> 00:53:03.768
but wants to improve his
living conditions like the rest?

00:53:03.993 --> 00:53:05.425
We have a responsibility,

00:53:05.450 --> 00:53:07.018
and I always speak of responsibility

00:53:07.120 --> 00:53:09.346
because people like us
who have the possibility

00:53:09.371 --> 00:53:11.315
of going to our warm bed,

00:53:11.340 --> 00:53:14.870
taking a shower, eating and
having a roof above our heads,

00:53:14.895 --> 00:53:17.893
we have the responsibility
to give that assistance

00:53:18.058 --> 00:53:21.042
or that solidarity or that accompaniment

00:53:21.067 --> 00:53:22.753
to people who don't have it.

00:53:23.011 --> 00:53:24.745
I do not care if it’s a national,

00:53:24.770 --> 00:53:26.331
or that person comes from Singapore,

00:53:26.519 --> 00:53:28.081
the responsibility is still there.

00:53:28.417 --> 00:53:30.706
And above all that it’s
vital not to criminalize,

00:53:30.731 --> 00:53:33.354
not to criminalize the
immigrant for wanting to migrate.

00:53:33.680 --> 00:53:36.323
And secondly, not to criminalize poverty,

00:53:36.677 --> 00:53:40.025
because if that migrant was rich,
was cominto to play for Real Madrid,

00:53:40.050 --> 00:53:44.049
we wouldn’t find any difficulties. Perhaps
we’d be talking about a racial issue.

00:53:44.346 --> 00:53:47.830
Whoever uses illegal ways to get to
Spain will have to return to their country.

00:53:48.395 --> 00:53:51.777
Therefore, use the legal ways.

00:53:52.067 --> 00:53:55.050
First we tell them that they
cannot leave their countries,

00:53:55.074 --> 00:53:57.177
because if a person can leave

00:53:57.202 --> 00:54:00.481
through the issuance of a visa
or through a consulate on a plane,

00:54:00.544 --> 00:54:02.630
their lives are not put
at risk coming in a boat.

00:54:02.693 --> 00:54:05.653
I always say it, and it’s the reality.

00:54:05.779 --> 00:54:08.216
To come by the seaway
route, the Dahleb route,

00:54:08.241 --> 00:54:10.509
which is the route they’re following
from Western Sahara or southern Morocco,

00:54:10.541 --> 00:54:13.110
depending on the
area, from Agadir, Safi ...

00:54:13.752 --> 00:54:18.329
A person can spend, depending on the
route, between 1,000-1,500€ and 2,000€

00:54:18.700 --> 00:54:23.439
to come and risk their life, which is a
much more precious asset than money.

00:54:23.665 --> 00:54:25.150
But to come by plane,

00:54:25.346 --> 00:54:28.665
the ticket can cost about 200€
from Western Sahara or Morocco,

00:54:28.705 --> 00:54:31.126
and visa issuance fees
are between 100€ and 125€.

00:54:31.377 --> 00:54:34.439
Get used to the idea that
when someone comes,

00:54:34.486 --> 00:54:38.572
they do not come because they want
to risk their lives or pay an "organization"

00:54:38.635 --> 00:54:42.298
or fisherman to transport them,

00:54:42.431 --> 00:54:45.119
they do so because we have
deprived them of the possibility

00:54:45.166 --> 00:54:47.751
of going to the Spanish
consulate in their country of origin

00:54:47.837 --> 00:54:51.040
and say “hey, look, I meet the
requirements, I have my family there

00:54:51.072 --> 00:54:55.369
and I want to meet them. These are
my documents and I will pay for the visa".

00:54:55.400 --> 00:54:58.548
We do not give them
that option, and by that

00:54:58.611 --> 00:55:01.181
we force them and push
them to risk their lives.

00:55:05.580 --> 00:55:09.767
What is happening to us is a reflection
of the European Union’s policies.

00:55:10.080 --> 00:55:12.785
In the new european
pact, or at least in its draft,

00:55:12.855 --> 00:55:15.597
about migrations and asylum seeking,

00:55:16.316 --> 00:55:20.066
the main objective is the
retention of immigrants in borders

00:55:20.136 --> 00:55:23.855
or coastal zones or south
borders, to deport them.

00:55:28.496 --> 00:55:32.777
Sometimes we accompany some
of the kids to the Iberian Peninsula,

00:55:33.011 --> 00:55:37.707
but the Government
says that they can’t get out

00:55:37.732 --> 00:55:41.058
if they have arrived
within the last 6 months.

00:55:41.216 --> 00:55:49.161
The Government and the political parties
that conform it, as PSOE and Podemos,

00:55:49.512 --> 00:55:57.059
should take actions because
what it’s happening here is inhuman.

00:56:02.809 --> 00:56:10.130
The European Union law says, as is written,
that the person who arrives in Spain

00:56:10.199 --> 00:56:13.059
and whose data has been registered here,

00:56:13.084 --> 00:56:15.999
if then decides to go to France,
Germany or another country,

00:56:16.280 --> 00:56:21.215
they will say “no, you were before in Spain
and Spain is responsible for your asylum”.

00:56:21.380 --> 00:56:25.536
In other words, the distribution
within the European Union is unfair,

00:56:25.685 --> 00:56:33.286
the law is designed that way because
obviously they do not arrive by air.

00:56:33.360 --> 00:56:37.794
So Italy, Spain, the border countries

00:56:37.880 --> 00:56:40.872
are where these people
arrive for the first time.

00:56:41.072 --> 00:56:43.012
What is Europe at the moment?

00:56:43.087 --> 00:56:46.012
Is that old “with age
comes wisdom” continent,

00:56:46.247 --> 00:56:51.778
criticizing  other regions
about respecting human rights

00:56:52.141 --> 00:56:55.090
but is now replicating
exactly what it condemns,

00:56:55.123 --> 00:56:56.434
although the Canary Islands
occupy a special place.

00:56:56.583 --> 00:57:00.864
I’d like to mention that the Canary Islands also
occupy a specific place in that framework,

00:57:00.927 --> 00:57:04.630
but we are within the EU, therefore those
political measures are within the EU.

00:57:04.778 --> 00:57:07.893
It is no longer the respect of
human rights, in Turkey, or in Syria,

00:57:07.973 --> 00:57:10.800
or in Latin America, or in Burma.

00:57:10.863 --> 00:57:15.089
These events are already taking
place within the European Union itself.

00:57:18.595 --> 00:57:22.728
There is no better or greater ally
in the European Union than Spain

00:57:22.794 --> 00:57:27.402
to defend strategic interests
that are so important for Morocco

00:57:27.543 --> 00:57:31.074
and so necessary for the European Union.

00:57:33.090 --> 00:57:39.738
You can hardly believe in institutions that
are allowing what is happening to happen.

00:57:39.861 --> 00:57:46.439
Honestly, we, from "Aquí
estamos" believe in small,

00:57:46.494 --> 00:57:48.821
combined and coordinated
citizen initiatives,

00:57:48.900 --> 00:57:52.962
forcing those authorities
to change decisions,

00:57:53.040 --> 00:57:57.071
because they are really subject
to powers we do not know about.

00:57:57.173 --> 00:58:03.415
So, I trust certain institutions, which
are of a non-governmental nature.

00:58:03.478 --> 00:58:08.509
There are very favorable initiatives on the
part of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid,

00:58:08.642 --> 00:58:11.610
which has denounced the Spanish
government before the Ombudsman

00:58:11.681 --> 00:58:14.618
and has revealed abusive legal situations.

00:58:14.673 --> 00:58:19.610
There is a legal basis to allow
migrants who arrive in the Canary Islands

00:58:19.752 --> 00:58:23.751
to move freely throughout
the Spanish territory.

00:58:23.920 --> 00:58:28.212
The group is called “Aquí Estamos”.
We started with, literally, two jackets.

00:58:28.353 --> 00:58:32.743
One day, we started to
collaborate and help people.

00:58:32.806 --> 00:58:35.110
There were these two boys, one
who had gone to the Iberian Peninsula,

00:58:35.197 --> 00:58:41.306
and told me that it was very cold there.

00:58:41.416 --> 00:58:45.806
That day two other guys were
about to fly to the Peninsula.

00:58:46.033 --> 00:58:50.275
I called my friend Fran,
who is in “Aquí Estamos” too,

00:58:50.345 --> 00:58:52.759
and he brought the two jackets.

00:58:52.978 --> 00:59:00.017
That was when we started
helping the immigrants.

00:59:00.087 --> 00:59:04.094
We took them to the harbour
when they needed, to the airport,

00:59:04.180 --> 00:59:05.995
we helped them with their paperwork,...

00:59:06.175 --> 00:59:08.651
Since they want to go to the
Iberian Peninsula and there

00:59:08.721 --> 00:59:10.893
or in other countries the
weather is colder than here,

00:59:10.925 --> 00:59:18.034
we ask canarian people to
help, mostly with warm clothes.

00:59:18.175 --> 00:59:22.206
To be honest, people have
helped as much as they could,

00:59:22.386 --> 00:59:28.385
and we got many collection
points for clothes and food.

00:59:28.503 --> 00:59:30.628
People have been very involved

00:59:31.003 --> 00:59:37.620
The most important thing we
are providing is presence, I believe.

00:59:37.941 --> 00:59:41.620
Being present means
being together with migrants

00:59:41.659 --> 00:59:46.532
when they find themselves in
troubled situations with the police,

00:59:46.697 --> 00:59:51.462
at the airport or whenever they
need to go to the doctor, for example.

00:59:51.711 --> 00:59:56.048
The sense of presence is, in my
belief, key on what we’re doing.

00:59:56.134 --> 01:00:03.423
“Associations of friends of migration in
Tenerife have played a very important role

01:00:04.041 --> 01:00:07.203
like “Aquí Estamos” and others.
There are several organizations

01:00:07.751 --> 01:00:12.320
such as those who are camping
up there with migrants too,

01:00:12.398 --> 01:00:15.148
who are staying there,
living with them, and so on.

01:00:15.305 --> 01:00:21.054
There is a solidarity
work that is very important,

01:00:21.187 --> 01:00:25.195
that has had a journey from the
beginning, that has alerted the population

01:00:25.281 --> 01:00:29.992
and has done a lot of pedagogy,
especially in social media,

01:00:30.297 --> 01:00:36.624
continuously informing, every day, about
what’s happening there, what’s needed, etc.

01:00:36.679 --> 01:00:39.890
These are anonymous people, most of
them, but they can be counted by thousands

01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:44.132
and the number increases every day.
They do not appear so much in the media,

01:00:44.172 --> 01:00:48.249
because the media prefers xenophobic
issues, against immigrants, etc.

01:00:48.312 --> 01:00:50.140
Because the media
belongs to who we all know.

01:00:50.203 --> 01:00:53.109
But we know internally
that the Canarian people

01:00:53.187 --> 01:00:56.031
have historically been a folk of immigrants

01:00:56.141 --> 01:00:59.703
and they know the difficulties
the migratory process goes

01:00:59.760 --> 01:01:02.695
through until you finally
settle in the host country

01:01:02.703 --> 01:01:05.984
and develop your social
and family life there.

01:01:13.117 --> 01:01:18.929
Change has to come from each one
of us who occupy a political position,

01:01:19.100 --> 01:01:25.404
because if we don't humanize
that, society is already organized.

01:01:25.975 --> 01:01:29.904
My call goes to the
political people who are here

01:01:29.952 --> 01:01:34.115
and who have the obligation to be the
engine so that the rest of the colleagues

01:01:34.131 --> 01:01:36.701
who are in different
positions are involved in this.

01:01:36.762 --> 01:01:39.815
It cannot be that I am
involved on a Saturday morning,

01:01:39.886 --> 01:01:44.885
this morning I received information
from a kid who was on the streets.

01:01:44.964 --> 01:01:49.755
A kid they find and who, they
say, has been here since November,

01:01:50.545 --> 01:01:52.779
in Las Palmas in a street situation.

01:01:53.053 --> 01:01:57.724
They send me a photograph and my soul falls
to my feet because he is an obvious minor.

01:01:57.973 --> 01:02:00.012
Obvious minor that he has
been with the Red Cross.

01:02:00.098 --> 01:02:02.161
Obvious minor that he has been
walking around different places

01:02:02.208 --> 01:02:04.380
and that he has stayed on the
street. Has no one seen this?

01:02:08.420 --> 01:02:10.677
Tackling the immediate,

01:02:10.760 --> 01:02:13.302
which, for example, are street
situations that are taking place

01:02:13.327 --> 01:02:14.865
and that are becoming generalized,

01:02:14.920 --> 01:02:17.677
and in what way attention to
municipal social services and others,

01:02:17.724 --> 01:02:21.099
how do you approach that
when a Ministry of Inclusion thinks,

01:02:21.124 --> 01:02:24.349
thinks no, affirms that These
are not their competencies

01:02:24.396 --> 01:02:28.482
and they end up sending them to the camps
and the social corporations are asphyxiated

01:02:28.680 --> 01:02:32.427
to be able to attend to all situations of
social vulnerability, of social fragility?

01:02:32.920 --> 01:02:36.638
The measures we are pointing to in
the report are operational measures.

01:02:37.021 --> 01:02:42.732
These are measures that, if you want,
you can have a transfer mechanism now,

01:02:42.826 --> 01:02:45.286
as you already have for other
types of vulnerable groups.

01:02:45.467 --> 01:02:50.357
If you want, you can implement a
much more flexible policy with visas.

01:02:50.640 --> 01:02:53.443
You don't want to do it. I
mean, it's not that complicated.

01:03:01.740 --> 01:03:08.591
The island itself, as well Gran Canaria and
Fuerteventura have become prison islands.

01:03:09.021 --> 01:03:14.943
I believe that we cannot tolerate
this continuing to be the case.

01:03:14.967 --> 01:03:19.555
I believe that it does not
respond to the rights contained

01:03:19.579 --> 01:03:24.166
in the Spanish Constitution
or in the autonomy statutes,

01:03:24.416 --> 01:03:28.736
nor does it respond to the
minimum common sense

01:03:29.049 --> 01:03:31.885
of how other types of
people should be treated.

01:03:31.909 --> 01:03:35.385
The Spanish have always
been emigrants,

01:03:35.409 --> 01:03:38.885
for a long time the Canarians
also emigrated a lot.

01:03:44.986 --> 01:03:46.159
Not everything is a critic.

01:03:46.183 --> 01:03:49.963
We criticize because there are
many things that can be improved

01:03:49.987 --> 01:03:51.987
and it is our responsibility
to improve them.

01:03:52.143 --> 01:03:54.330
Because we play with the lives of others,

01:03:54.354 --> 01:03:58.054
we have in our hands
people's lives, their freedom.

01:03:58.437 --> 01:04:00.991
Because not long ago a
Sahrawi activist arrived,

01:04:01.233 --> 01:04:04.225
the judge did not understand
him, the lawyer did not do anything,

01:04:04.451 --> 01:04:07.178
he requested international
protection before a judge

01:04:07.350 --> 01:04:09.659
and was returned, and
right now he is serving

01:04:09.683 --> 01:04:11.991
a sentence by a Moroccan
court in Marrakech

01:04:12.015 --> 01:04:13.740
for being a Sahrawi and an activist.

01:04:14.021 --> 01:04:16.334
So we play with the lives of others

01:04:16.358 --> 01:04:18.358
and what does this situation generate?

01:04:18.382 --> 01:04:20.382
That we have a very great responsibility.

01:04:29.302 --> 01:04:33.471
The central government has
to support the Canary Islands.

01:04:33.838 --> 01:04:36.822
Because here on the islands
there are not many resources and,

01:04:37.126 --> 01:04:41.783
stopping 6,000, 7,000 immigrants
on an island for 6 months,

01:04:41.815 --> 01:04:46.130
seeing people who are unemployed,
who have neither food nor rent

01:04:46.154 --> 01:04:48.045
and who are being evicted...

01:04:48.069 --> 01:04:50.029
Leaving the immigrants here...

01:04:50.054 --> 01:04:56.323
I think the government should
at least come to the field, here,

01:04:56.348 --> 01:04:59.378
see what happens and if they
are capable of doing something.

01:04:59.402 --> 01:05:04.143
I think that if they had gone into
the camp to see the conditions,

01:05:04.167 --> 01:05:07.184
with the cold, with the
weather and the food,

01:05:07.209 --> 01:05:09.850
I think they could do something.

01:05:10.515 --> 01:05:13.030
Migrating is not a crime

01:05:26.483 --> 01:05:31.511
There is money that comes from the European
Union to cover the needs of migrants

01:05:31.972 --> 01:05:33.558
and they are not being covered.

01:05:33.590 --> 01:05:38.220
So, in this way, we
are providing clothing,

01:05:38.244 --> 01:05:43.173
we are also providing food,
in some cases also medicines,

01:05:43.204 --> 01:05:44.860
which are also lacking in that sense,

01:05:45.110 --> 01:05:48.313
and even provision of
basic services,

01:05:48.337 --> 01:05:51.540
such as medical services and
psychological assistance.

01:05:51.767 --> 01:05:55.258
The state government complains to Brussels,

01:05:56.188 --> 01:05:57.774
with the new pact,

01:05:57.798 --> 01:06:02.069
because it considers that the
burden of migration management

01:06:02.093 --> 01:06:04.093
is falling on the countries of the south.

01:06:04.335 --> 01:06:06.240
Like Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain.

01:06:06.264 --> 01:06:10.471
However, in the Canary Islands it
is reproducing what it reproaches.

01:06:10.776 --> 01:06:13.705
Which is an important political incongruity

01:06:15.064 --> 01:06:19.652
and which also leads you to think that
political wills are excessively fickle.

01:06:20.090 --> 01:06:22.245
And that is the reality,
that is the vision of Europe

01:06:22.270 --> 01:06:24.808
and it is a vision that the
Spanish state has perfectly bought.

01:06:35.570 --> 01:06:39.355
We must understand that
the border business kills

01:06:39.738 --> 01:06:41.566
and we have seen it.

01:06:41.816 --> 01:06:45.863
There are people who cannot
get out with the issuance of a visa.

01:06:45.925 --> 01:06:49.798
Imagine what an economical
relieve would it be for a state,

01:06:49.822 --> 01:06:54.162
that a person can leave with their visa,
that is identified,

01:06:54.186 --> 01:06:55.482
which is the fear they have

01:06:55.506 --> 01:06:57.857
"What if that person is from
Daesh and is not identified"

01:06:57.969 --> 01:07:01.566
Well, it has not been verified that
any person who comes by seaway

01:07:01.590 --> 01:07:04.313
is from Daesh and has not been identified.

01:07:04.645 --> 01:07:07.954
And also the possibility that they
leave in a safe and dignified way,

01:07:07.978 --> 01:07:09.438
which is the most important thing.

01:07:09.462 --> 01:07:10.910
If we did this,

01:07:10.934 --> 01:07:13.529
no one would get into
the business

01:07:13.553 --> 01:07:16.496
of what can be considered a mafia
or a criminal organization.

01:07:16.644 --> 01:07:19.362
Nobody would pay 1,000,
1,500, 2,000 euros ...

01:07:20.338 --> 01:07:23.151
and also that border would
not have to be guarded

01:07:23.175 --> 01:07:26.432
because it would not be necessary,
because we would all travel freely

01:07:26.674 --> 01:07:30.534
and the speech may seem utopian and
very beautiful and populist,

01:07:30.558 --> 01:07:31.860
but it is the reality.

01:07:31.884 --> 01:07:35.798
I would like you to see the data of
how much the European Union spends,

01:07:36.189 --> 01:07:38.742
thousands and thousands,
and I would be saying

01:07:38.766 --> 01:07:41.204
thousands all the
time, of millions euros

01:07:41.391 --> 01:07:45.102
in border devices that
do not guard any border

01:07:45.563 --> 01:07:47.094
because people are leaving.

01:07:51.226 --> 01:07:52.625
The camps would not be necessary

01:07:52.821 --> 01:07:55.219
if the money being spent on them

01:07:55.243 --> 01:07:57.828
were given to the Canarian people to manage

01:07:57.906 --> 01:08:01.687
the temporary stay that
the migrants are having here.

01:08:01.711 --> 01:08:05.328
All those millions from the European
Union and Spain who go to the camps

01:08:05.359 --> 01:08:10.085
where a completely inhuman
form of treating people is organized,

01:08:10.328 --> 01:08:12.784
it has been shown that,
in the hands of the people,

01:08:12.808 --> 01:08:16.570
a better way is feasible
and would be cheaper, much cheaper.

01:08:16.804 --> 01:08:20.578
We are missing a great opportunity
doing things in a different way

01:08:20.602 --> 01:08:22.602
than how they were done in 2006

01:08:22.727 --> 01:08:25.187
and in other past migration crises.

01:08:25.441 --> 01:08:27.886
We are talking about a progressive
government at national level,

01:08:27.910 --> 01:08:29.167
and also at the regional level.

01:08:29.191 --> 01:08:32.128
There is an opportunity
to do it in a different way.

01:08:33.244 --> 01:08:37.839
I sincerely believe that forcing,
putting plugs,

01:08:37.863 --> 01:08:40.721
causes emotions that are afflictive.

01:08:40.745 --> 01:08:42.745
Emotions that are depressing

01:08:43.009 --> 01:08:47.182
and emotions that also lead to anger,
violence, and rage.

01:08:47.206 --> 01:08:51.563
I think it is limiting something that is
going to be natural for the next decades,

01:08:51.588 --> 01:08:55.862
and that is that Europe is going to be an
even more mixed-race Europe than it is now.

01:08:55.887 --> 01:08:59.121
Europe, possibly, in 50
years is going to be a Europe

01:08:59.579 --> 01:09:02.117
whose colour, the colour
of Europe is going to be

01:09:02.477 --> 01:09:05.473
mixed or even black.

01:09:05.763 --> 01:09:08.787
So avoiding something
that is totally natural

01:09:08.934 --> 01:09:11.599
leads to situations that
are going to be very painful,

01:09:11.624 --> 01:09:13.380
in the present and in the future.

01:09:21.789 --> 01:09:24.567
The SIV is the Comprehensive
Video Surveillance System

01:09:24.592 --> 01:09:28.512
that is under the jurisdiction
of the Civil Guard of the sea.

01:09:28.678 --> 01:09:34.233
It is a system that is made up
of several computers, computers,

01:09:34.295 --> 01:09:39.937
a system that is responsible for video
surveillance to rescuing and saving,

01:09:39.962 --> 01:09:42.177
but in the end, 1,751 people died.

01:09:42.258 --> 01:09:47.124
The boats are not detected when
they arrive or before they arrive.

01:09:47.149 --> 01:09:50.297
Foreigners internment
center: millions of euros.

01:09:50.322 --> 01:09:53.125
ubcontractors, national police

01:09:53.150 --> 01:09:59.136
and armored spaces with
a lot of security, apparently,

01:09:59.161 --> 01:10:02.699
to guard people who want to move freely,

01:10:02.760 --> 01:10:06.691
and deprive them of their freedom.
CATES, Temporary Attention Centers

01:10:06.780 --> 01:10:11.695
also armored, UIP equipment, Police
Intervention Units to guard that area.

01:10:11.720 --> 01:10:15.937
Imagine the salary of each of the people
who are there. Imagine these spaces,

01:10:15.962 --> 01:10:19.874
these subcontractors. I do not
know how many million euros.

01:10:19.899 --> 01:10:24.387
Just imagine. In borders, in SIVES ...

01:10:24.412 --> 01:10:28.075
to guarantee borders that
are not being guaranteed.

01:10:45.195 --> 01:10:50.280
One of the arguments used by racist people

01:10:50.420 --> 01:10:54.849
is that the matter must be
solved in the country of origin.

01:10:54.874 --> 01:10:57.979
But you have to solve the matter in
origin, do you know what that means?

01:10:58.004 --> 01:11:02.575
It means allowing Nigerians
to exploit their own oil.

01:11:02.600 --> 01:11:05.999
That it is not Shell or
Chevron that exploit the oil

01:11:06.175 --> 01:11:09.169
and then take it to the
international market.

01:11:09.194 --> 01:11:12.241
We believe that we have to expose those
deportation agreements

01:11:12.266 --> 01:11:13.921
because migrating is not a crime-

01:11:14.088 --> 01:11:17.732
And even more knowing morally, ethically,

01:11:17.816 --> 01:11:20.740
that we are producing
these migrations from Europe.

01:11:20.860 --> 01:11:23.726
In other words, people leave Africa,
as we explained before,

01:11:23.751 --> 01:11:27.555
because of the interests that
European countries have there.

01:11:27.580 --> 01:11:30.333
The phrase in which I synthesize that is:

01:11:30.480 --> 01:11:33.575
“They are here because we are there.”

01:11:33.846 --> 01:11:36.352
The great city of Paris
is illuminated with the

01:11:36.376 --> 01:11:38.882
uranium that is extracted
from Mali, Niger, etc.

01:11:44.296 --> 01:11:49.631
The media focus has sought
to generalise hatred discourse.

01:11:49.798 --> 01:11:53.490
To give you an idea, data from the INE,
which is the National Statistics Institute,

01:11:53.639 --> 01:11:58.268
from last year 2020, 748,000
people entered national territory,

01:11:58.300 --> 01:12:05.434
Spain, 748,000, 4% of
which is irregular immigration.

01:12:05.459 --> 01:12:10.507
41,000 are irregular immigration. These
are people who come in small boats,

01:12:10.600 --> 01:12:12.754
in other words, 4%.

01:12:13.660 --> 01:12:20.166
Most people come by air or by port,
and they come with their visa or passport.

01:12:20.803 --> 01:12:25.959
So why the interest, if it is
4%, in focusing on immigration?

01:12:26.354 --> 01:12:29.884
That someone can transit, and
above all, that they have to do so,

01:12:29.909 --> 01:12:32.533
I obviously understand that
it is because it is irregular,

01:12:32.940 --> 01:12:35.662
but the focus has been placed
on the fact that this is an invasion.

01:12:35.740 --> 01:12:38.974
That Morocco, which by the
way, 51% of the people who

01:12:38.998 --> 01:12:42.231
arrived are indeed North
Africans, including Saharawis,

01:12:42.680 --> 01:12:47.008
are from the northwest or North Africa.

01:12:47.033 --> 01:12:51.867
But it also has to do with the fact that the route
through the north of Morocco,

01:12:51.840 --> 01:12:52.786
Al Hoceima, has been closed.

01:12:52.852 --> 01:12:56.934
So in a way, when you repress,
repress, close all the doors of your house

01:12:56.959 --> 01:13:03.552
and you are burning, you have to
go out through whatever door you can.

01:13:03.577 --> 01:13:05.341
This is the reality of migrants,

01:13:05.366 --> 01:13:08.463
who arrive here because we
have given them no other possibility

01:13:08.488 --> 01:13:10.379
they have had to break their door,

01:13:10.404 --> 01:13:12.913
put their backpack and
their life behind them,

01:13:12.938 --> 01:13:16.575
and when they arrive we don't
even call them by their name.

01:13:22.300 --> 01:13:25.098
The Government should at
least accelerate the process,

01:13:25.180 --> 01:13:28.106
and let the people pass
and continue with their lives

01:13:28.960 --> 01:13:33.801
They don't want to be here,
they want to go with their family.

01:13:33.874 --> 01:13:36.727
There are people who have their parents
away, their siblings, their cousins,

01:13:37.140 --> 01:13:42.573
their friends… So you leave
them here for 5 or 6 months,

01:13:42.680 --> 01:13:46.965
without saying anything to them, without
telling them whether they can leave or not.

01:13:46.990 --> 01:13:49.680
And the information
does not reach them either.

01:13:49.927 --> 01:13:54.818
In that progress that we have seen in the
last months, in the last years, of fascism

01:13:54.966 --> 01:13:58.232
on the European continent... I
think this is one element more

01:13:58.257 --> 01:14:02.794
that is telling us where things
are going in the upcoming years.

01:14:02.819 --> 01:14:07.325
Of course, they obviously start with the
poorest people, in this case, migrants.

01:14:12.719 --> 01:14:17.727
Last year, 2020, from approximately
23,000 people who arrived

01:14:17.752 --> 01:14:19.656
in the last 3 or 4 months,

01:14:19.980 --> 01:14:24.945
166, around 120 criminal
offenses. 120-odd crimes.

01:14:25.123 --> 01:14:30.622
Of migrants, of all the migrants
who arrived, to give you an idea.

01:14:30.747 --> 01:14:34.582
Half of these crimes are
for document falsification.

01:14:34.607 --> 01:14:38.683
I mean, I need a passport to be
able to travel because they won't let me

01:14:38.708 --> 01:14:42.355
with my Senegalese ID
because I need a passport.

01:14:42.606 --> 01:14:47.010
My cousin sends me his passport
and I use his passport to fly.

01:14:47.035 --> 01:14:51.253
Half of those people have been pushed by the
Spanish state to commit this criminal act,

01:14:51.565 --> 01:14:55.370
which for humanitarian reasons
could even be a criminal exemption.

01:14:55.588 --> 01:14:59.657
So, of this type of people who have
committed a crime, which are tiny

01:14:59.689 --> 01:15:01.938
in proportion to the population
that has arrived from immigrants,

01:15:02.250 --> 01:15:04.868
we are telling them that also,

01:15:05.344 --> 01:15:08.641
“Hey, you can't go out and accept it.

01:15:08.797 --> 01:15:11.993
Be satisfied with this because you have
committed a crime, which is to migrate”.

01:15:12.140 --> 01:15:16.124
And migrating is not a crime, entering
irregularly is an administrative procedure.

01:15:16.157 --> 01:15:19.507
This is important. It's not wearing
the mask and getting fined for it.

01:15:20.190 --> 01:15:23.545
And this until we understand

01:15:23.652 --> 01:15:25.034
and internalize it, we are not

01:15:25.059 --> 01:15:27.698
going to be able to sit down and say to
that person,

01:15:27.723 --> 01:15:29.003
“You have the same rights as me.

01:15:29.028 --> 01:15:31.995
You are in transit? Okay, well, I'm
going to try to guarantee your rights

01:15:32.040 --> 01:15:34.214
just as I have to guarantee mine".

01:15:38.356 --> 01:15:43.090
Ideology, as Luis Altúzar
said, is by we live daily.

01:15:43.260 --> 01:15:46.520
It seems that it is not important

01:15:46.545 --> 01:15:50.127
but what we consume, what
we do, our way of life, of thinking,

01:15:50.152 --> 01:15:51.892
everything is ideology.

01:15:52.244 --> 01:15:57.405
Our ideology is highly conditioned
by all that kind of unequal

01:15:57.430 --> 01:16:01.272
north-south relationship between the two,

01:16:01.421 --> 01:16:04.794
in which territories are generated

01:16:04.819 --> 01:16:09.286
that exist simply to serve
the interests of consumption

01:16:09.467 --> 01:16:11.935
and development of northern societies.

01:16:15.660 --> 01:16:18.844
We have more to learn from
them than they do from us.

01:16:19.093 --> 01:16:24.867
Because they come from a society in
which the community continues to function,

01:16:24.940 --> 01:16:28.647
hence the strangeness they
feel when they arrive in territories

01:16:28.672 --> 01:16:31.742
where everything is organized
administratively, hierarchically,

01:16:31.767 --> 01:16:32.789
the State is the one that intervenes ...

01:16:32.814 --> 01:16:38.810
When they come from a society where
mutual support, family is the primar way

01:16:38.835 --> 01:16:42.436
of social organization, etc, is the
norm. It doesn’t need to be written by law.

01:16:42.461 --> 01:16:45.024
It has been customarily
written down over centuries.

01:16:45.049 --> 01:16:49.116
And that is teaching us to recover

01:16:49.141 --> 01:16:52.922
some of those elements that we had until
recently and that we have been losing.

01:16:52.947 --> 01:16:56.445
That is why I say that, actually,
we are learning more from them,

01:16:56.550 --> 01:17:00.174
more from the poor people of the south,

01:17:00.367 --> 01:17:05.914
than what we, the rich people
of the north, can give to them.

01:17:06.001 --> 01:17:11.533
In the Canary Islands, we
need to start looking at Africa,

01:17:11.580 --> 01:17:15.680
not only from the perspective of tragedy,
backwardness and underdevelopment,

01:17:15.705 --> 01:17:17.477
but as Africa as a possibility.

01:17:17.560 --> 01:17:22.199
We are Africans. I see it
this way, we are in Africa.

01:17:22.389 --> 01:17:27.647
And we must improve relations
with our neighbouring countries.

01:17:27.672 --> 01:17:32.945
It is true that there is a very important
handicap, which is war in Western Sahara,

01:17:33.492 --> 01:17:39.267
and probably until the conflict
in Western Sahara is resolved,

01:17:39.292 --> 01:17:44.499
we are going to have problems inserting
ourselves in a completely natural way

01:17:44.581 --> 01:17:48.544
with the neighbouring African coast.

01:17:48.696 --> 01:17:52.681
We do not have to go very
far back in history: before 1975,

01:17:52.740 --> 01:17:55.369
tens of thousands of Canary
Islanders lived in the Sahara,

01:17:55.508 --> 01:17:58.672
many Saharawis came
here, studied at the university,

01:17:58.704 --> 01:18:04.663
there was a cultural, economic,
gastronomic, etc. exchange of populations.

01:18:04.880 --> 01:18:07.858
populations. And I think that
would be ideal for the future.

01:18:07.883 --> 01:18:11.819
Not only with the Sahara but also
with Mauritania, Senegal or Gambia,

01:18:11.844 --> 01:18:17.158
because they are also areas that can help
the development of the islands themselves.

01:18:17.183 --> 01:18:20.559
For them to develop and for us to develop.

01:18:27.340 --> 01:18:32.254
We have to support the workers of this
NGO who are being forced to do things

01:18:32.360 --> 01:18:35.474
that under normal conditions
and because they are paid a salary

01:18:35.740 --> 01:18:37.945
and the company says so,
they have to do them as well,

01:18:37.970 --> 01:18:44.073
Because we know of cases, even students
from the university itself who are working

01:18:44.098 --> 01:18:48.168
for these organisations and who
practically cannot make any statement

01:18:48.193 --> 01:18:49.691
about what is going on inside.

01:18:49.942 --> 01:18:53.944
And in any company that has workers,

01:18:53.940 --> 01:18:58.538
the worker can, under normal conditions,
say what is happening in that company

01:18:58.563 --> 01:18:59.725
and present his complaints.

01:18:59.750 --> 01:19:03.794
And here it is totally forbidden,
which means that not only

01:19:03.819 --> 01:19:08.407
are the rights of immigrants not
being respected, but the rights of the

01:19:08.432 --> 01:19:11.929
Spanish workers, Canarian workers, who
are in these NGOs, are not being respected.

01:19:11.954 --> 01:19:14.999
I appeal not only to the
Autonomous Community

01:19:15.024 --> 01:19:17.232
but also to the State
and the European Union:

01:19:17.257 --> 01:19:20.966
this is a matter for all of us, and
I don't want to call it a problem.

01:19:20.991 --> 01:19:22.377
It is a matter for all of us.

01:19:22.402 --> 01:19:25.322
If we all put the machinery
in place, everything works.

01:19:25.347 --> 01:19:29.432
If the machinery is put in place by just a
few of us, then obviously it becomes lame.

01:19:29.457 --> 01:19:32.204
Once you have a conversation,

01:19:32.229 --> 01:19:35.891
once you know the life
trajectory, you realise that

01:19:35.952 --> 01:19:39.618
the difference is in the outermost
layer of the human being.

01:19:39.718 --> 01:19:43.816
If you take that away, everything
is the same. It really fades away.

01:19:44.068 --> 01:19:47.074
And xenophobia is
ignorance, nothing happens.

01:19:47.107 --> 01:19:52.250
I'm not judging a person who puts a swastika
on a boat in the south of the island

01:19:52.275 --> 01:19:54.796
because they do
it out of ignorance.

01:19:54.821 --> 01:19:59.155
It is very easy to be in
front of a computer, a screen,

01:19:59.180 --> 01:20:03.119
writing without knowing anything
about what is happening in Africa.

01:20:03.280 --> 01:20:07.199
And there are people who don't
even know where the Peninsula is,

01:20:07.224 --> 01:20:12.822
so I think that the people who comment
should be people who have travelled,

01:20:12.847 --> 01:20:16.596
who have an open mind to know
what is happening elsewhere.

01:20:16.621 --> 01:20:24.008
Because who would leave
their homeland for fun?

01:20:24.111 --> 01:20:28.344
I don't think anyone would, because
if I leave Africa it's for a reason.

01:20:28.372 --> 01:20:32.555
If I had the conditions that I have
here in Spain, I wouldn't stay here.

01:20:32.580 --> 01:20:35.008
I would stay there in
Senegal, with my family.

01:20:44.105 --> 01:20:46.605
If we wanted to guarantee people's rights,

01:20:47.199 --> 01:20:48.722
all that money I am telling you about:

01:20:48.747 --> 01:20:52.620
millions and thousands to guarantee
borders that are not being guaranteed,

01:20:52.645 --> 01:20:56.905
imagine allocating it
to free and safe transit.

01:20:56.930 --> 01:20:59.864
Imagine spending it so
that people can move freely,

01:20:59.889 --> 01:21:01.835
leave and enter as
they wish, as laid down

01:21:01.859 --> 01:21:04.044
in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.

01:21:04.380 --> 01:21:07.406
Imagine that money being
spent so that, when they arrive,

01:21:07.431 --> 01:21:08.656
they are received with dignity.

01:21:08.793 --> 01:21:11.458
Without detention centres for foreigners,

01:21:11.598 --> 01:21:15.064
without police custody,

01:21:15.089 --> 01:21:17.752
without all the things
we are talking about.

01:21:17.777 --> 01:21:22.935
Imagine that you have the right to a
real lawyer, who will be paid his fees

01:21:22.960 --> 01:21:25.772
in a dignified way so that
he can say: "I am going

01:21:25.796 --> 01:21:28.608
to stand up here with
you, with you and with you

01:21:28.633 --> 01:21:32.842
to see your procedure through to the end
because I believe in your rights firmly".

01:21:32.874 --> 01:21:37.706
Imagine that money going to
social workers, to psychologists,

01:21:37.731 --> 01:21:41.606
which is essential. That also, we
are crushing the emotional health

01:21:41.631 --> 01:21:45.286
of the people who are arriving.

01:21:45.500 --> 01:21:48.794
Not only are we telling them
that arriving illegally is wrong,

01:21:48.900 --> 01:21:51.028
but we are also depriving
them of their freedom,

01:21:51.053 --> 01:21:52.982
we are imprisoning
them in the Canary Islands

01:21:53.006 --> 01:21:54.935
and we are trying to
get them to accept this.

01:21:55.053 --> 01:21:57.644
They cannot accept these conditions.

01:21:57.669 --> 01:21:59.457
They cannot accept it
because everyone has their

01:21:59.481 --> 01:22:01.230
own way and their own
way of seeing things,

01:22:01.255 --> 01:22:04.255
and in the end, when you deprive someone
of their freedom who has done nothing,

01:22:04.288 --> 01:22:07.958
and moreover, you do it in an
Internment Centre for Foreigners

01:22:07.983 --> 01:22:09.911
after having come in a boat

01:22:09.936 --> 01:22:12.578
without knowing whether
they were going to die or live,

01:22:12.607 --> 01:22:15.188
with their brother on their legs

01:22:15.213 --> 01:22:17.711
and who has had to throw I don't
know how many bodies into the sea...

01:22:17.938 --> 01:22:21.242
When they arrive we tell them that they have
to be in an Internment Centre for Foreigners.

01:22:21.412 --> 01:22:24.273
And the most terrible
thing is that we don't even

01:22:24.297 --> 01:22:27.456
provide them with an expert
emotional health worker.

01:22:27.593 --> 01:22:29.745
They don't even have a psychologist to say

01:22:30.075 --> 01:22:32.839
"My transit has been
terrible, I need a support

01:22:32.863 --> 01:22:35.386
point other than a
pill and go to sleep".

01:22:35.668 --> 01:22:38.996
But yet a person who has
committed a criminal offence

01:22:39.111 --> 01:22:41.152
- one or twenty, I don't judge -

01:22:41.200 --> 01:22:45.855
has a social worker and has a psychologist.

01:22:45.956 --> 01:22:49.424
It is as if the lives of
migrants were worth less,

01:22:49.505 --> 01:22:52.861
and that is terrible. Imagine
all that money being spent

01:22:52.886 --> 01:22:56.145
so that they can have
psychologists when they arrive,

01:22:56.170 --> 01:23:00.162
and so that they can understand that it is
normal that they cannot sleep for six days

01:23:00.187 --> 01:23:02.413
because of everything
they have suffered in transit.

01:23:02.438 --> 01:23:06.530
But that they have that support, that crutch,
until they can understand that situation.

01:23:06.555 --> 01:23:10.798
Imagine saying to him: "Your family is
in Madrid? Well, we'll pay for your ticket

01:23:10.823 --> 01:23:13.488
so that you can get to
Madrid". Imagine all that money,

01:23:13.513 --> 01:23:17.035
all that money that is lost, for a 4%.

01:23:17.240 --> 01:23:20.043
Imagine all that money
we were talking about,

01:23:20.067 --> 01:23:22.870
the billions of euros
to secure the borders,

01:23:22.968 --> 01:23:26.698
if it were spent on that 4%.
We would have too much.

01:23:26.920 --> 01:23:30.976
As my colleague Victor said earlier, if it
were given to the population to manage it,

01:23:31.001 --> 01:23:34.052
it would be left over. Well,
this is exactly the same.

01:23:34.077 --> 01:23:36.486
This money to guarantee
borders that are not being

01:23:36.510 --> 01:23:39.364
guaranteed and for lives
that are dying trying to arrive,

01:23:40.187 --> 01:23:42.926
if it were allocated to a dignified
reception at the moment of arrival

01:23:42.951 --> 01:23:45.637
and not to what is happening
right now - which is not a reception,

01:23:45.732 --> 01:23:50.305
it is a dehumanisation and an
abuse of fundamental human rights

01:23:50.920 --> 01:23:54.484
- this would be different.
Very different, I am sure.

01:23:54.536 --> 01:23:57.844
And of course we are not going to
change this unjust world just like that.

01:23:57.869 --> 01:24:00.162
and we are not going to
make a click with that money.

01:24:00.187 --> 01:24:03.530
Surely there will be people who
can manage it better, others worse,

01:24:03.540 --> 01:24:07.256
but I think that if we allowed
the rest of us to move freely

01:24:07.288 --> 01:24:08.146
in the world...

01:24:08.560 --> 01:24:12.701
I can go anywhere in the world, why
can't you go anywhere in the world?

01:24:12.726 --> 01:24:15.361
Ah, because you are African.
Of course, but I am African,

01:24:15.386 --> 01:24:17.728
so why can't I go out with a visa?
Oh right,

01:24:17.753 --> 01:24:19.023
and why do I want to go out?

01:24:19.047 --> 01:24:21.453
Ah, because you have
stolen all my natural resources,

01:24:21.640 --> 01:24:23.964
because you have forced me
to live with a puppet government

01:24:23.988 --> 01:24:26.343
that you have put in place to
continue enriching yourselves?

01:24:26.367 --> 01:24:31.997
So don't try to take away our
bread and then give us a few crumbs.

01:24:32.021 --> 01:24:34.021
And the crumbs are these.

01:24:34.045 --> 01:24:36.583
It seems that a lot of
money is being invested

01:24:36.607 --> 01:24:39.700
but it is money managed
in the same way as always,

01:24:40.192 --> 01:24:45.224
by a few while those at the
bottom die trying to get there,

01:24:45.248 --> 01:24:47.248
which sometimes doesn't get there.

01:25:37.062 --> 01:25:39.062
"Imperialism often occurs
in more subtle forms,

01:25:39.087 --> 01:25:41.093
a loan, food aid, blackmail.

01:25:41.118 --> 01:25:43.118
We are fighting this system

01:25:43.143 --> 01:25:46.468
that allows a handful of men
on Earth to rule all of humanity."

01:25:56.776 --> 01:25:59.184
I told my father that I
was going to take a boat

01:25:59.208 --> 01:26:01.322
and he said "no, you're
not going to take a boat".

01:26:01.689 --> 01:26:05.143
And I don't know how to swim either,
I didn't know how to swim and,

01:26:05.167 --> 01:26:07.721
even now, I don't know how to swim either.

01:26:07.745 --> 01:26:10.565
So when I told my father he said

01:26:10.589 --> 01:26:12.705
"Abdou, you're not going
to take a boat to emigrate.

01:26:12.729 --> 01:26:15.682
We are going to try if there is a
visa and if there isn't, you stay here".

01:26:16.120 --> 01:26:19.471
As my friends had left,
they always called me and

01:26:19.823 --> 01:26:23.627
told me about the sale and so on,
so I felt very sad.

01:26:23.651 --> 01:26:25.591
I am very close friends with my father

01:26:25.615 --> 01:26:28.622
and he seeing me very sad said to me,

01:26:28.646 --> 01:26:30.794
"Well, whatever you
want. Let's give it a try."

01:26:30.818 --> 01:26:34.013
So he contacted a man, a marabout,

01:26:34.038 --> 01:26:36.560
who was looking at the road
and whether it would go well or not.

01:26:36.584 --> 01:26:39.872
The man told him:

01:26:39.896 --> 01:26:43.286
"This way to Europe
with the patera will be fine.

01:26:43.310 --> 01:26:47.676
It's safer than the visa you
are going to take to Argentina".

01:26:47.934 --> 01:26:52.091
Then my father said to me:
"Well, you can go now".

01:30:13.066 --> 01:30:17.142
Thank you to every migrant and
every Canary Islands resident

01:30:17.167 --> 01:30:21.206
who decided to walk side by side,
and we will continue to do so,

01:30:21.231 --> 01:30:25.165
ackwonledging humanity by nature has been,
is and will be migrant.

01:30:25.190 --> 01:30:29.006
We have a great opportunity to celebrate
the union respecting the differences.