GRAB YOUR MANTA AND RUN

by Julián Socorro

All of a sudden a scream drowns everything else out. “Gayan gok!!” He snatched up the sack with all his force and took off running. Passeig de Gràcia was a sea of people but none of them stopped Amadou Dieye, a young Senegalese man, from putting a few extra meters between himself and the three guardias urbanos pursuing him. His heart raced and adrenaline dictated every movement. It seemed he would succeed in his escape, but, reaching Gran Vía, he couldn’t outrun the car that smashed into him. He fell, unconscious, and his crimson-colored blood, the same color as everyone’s, stained the pavement with impotence and desperation.

The Welcome Committee

Like Amadou, many young Africans fall victim to the harsh and ineffective policies of Spanish immigration law. It condemns them to a life of earthly limbo that sometimes doesn’t promise legality even if and after the stipulated two years of residency and work that laws for integration of foreigners into public life require.

In 2006, those trying to enter Spain illegally via barco represented a small 5% of the total when compared with the 80% that flew in and the 15% that used ground transportation. Once in Spain, the luck immigrants from the “continente negro” might run can take various courses according to Isabel Martínez, spokesperson for the association SOS Racisme Catalunya. “If discovered as they’re attempting to enter the country, authorities divide the newcomers into three groups. Some, from countries with established repatriation legislation, are returned to their nations of origin. The rest are either interned in one of the Centros de Estancia Temporal de Inmigrantes (CETI) or sent to African countries that have agreed to accept “non-nationals.” Spain maintains this last “fix” with Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea y Morocco, among others. If processed under these agreements, immigrants “risk being sent to countries like Morocco where they are either imprisoned or abandoned at the southern border, at which point their only option is to wander deep into the desert where many will succumb to hunger and dehydration,” explained Martínez. The other option, the CETI, are camps which exist in Ceuta, Melilla y Canarias. Since there’s no established criteria or plan of action for the camps, there is no maximum length of “asylum.” Thus, immigrants “can be held indefinitely,” she points out.

Between Heaven and Hell

Although it’s very difficult to find exact statistics on the number of “illegals” in the country, data from the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) from 2006 and 2007 affirms the existence of (at least) around 40,000 Africans residing in Spain “sin papeles.” Of those 40,000, many have managed to avoid police controls. Others have been freed from the CETI. But in many cases, such “liberation” leaves them with their hands tied, since some will have already been marked with an “order of expulsion.” This tends to mean that they’ll never be able to normalize their situation and leaves them in legal limbo that neither exiles them nor allows them to live in peace, adding to the already difficult situation of finding a way to earn a living the loss of the hope of ever actually becoming legal. For those that have managed to enter the country undetected, danger becomes a sort of daily truth against which immigrants must constantly fight. If arrested in public, they run the risk of being sent to one of the many “Centros de Internamiento” spread about the Iberian Peninsula. These institutions, where, according to Isabel Martínez, “human rights are violated,” are run more like penitentiaries than treatment centers for individuals “sin papeles.” At present, confinement is not permitted for a period greater than 40 days. But, under new EU laws, said period could last up to 8 months!! It’s a system that, on its face, doesn’t seem very different from the internationally spurned American military base at Guantánamo.

The government’s lack of seriousness in dealing with these temas results in a lack of policy that decides each immigrant’s fate consistently. As it is, “the status of a liberated person previously held in a CETI or Centro de Internamiento is decided arbitrarily.” Only luck decides if liberation will include an “order of expulsion” or, somewhat more fortunately, simply allow him to walk the streets as if nothing ever happened.

Another example of governmental senselessness with respect to immigration policy is reflected in the fact that, once liberated from the CETI, immigrants are distributed throughout Spain with 50 euros in their pockets and a few contact numbers for shelters or other organizations such as Caritas (Confederación oficial de las entidades de acción caritativa y social de la iglesia católica) or the Red Cross. Problem solved. This is how the affected are left: in desperation. On the outside of normal society and without means to earn a living, options are few and far between. And that’s how a large number of African immigrants end up hawking and peddling cheap goods on the street as a means of survival.

Top Manta

Amadou Dieye, the young Senegalese protagonist of the accident on the 23rd of August, 2007 at the intersection of Passeig de Gràcia and Gran Via managed to escape with his life. He did not, however, escape unharmed. In the emergency room at the Hospital San Pau he was given the appropriate treatment and, after 5 hours, discharged with various contusions and an injured right arm completely immobilized by bandages.

Presently Amadou finds himself working in one of the fields where “illegals” are normally hired, harvesting agricultural goods or doing seasonal picking. In the meantime, in Barcelona, his companions continue working, trying to survive in seemingly the only feasible way short of turning to theft: selling imitation wallets, sun glasses, and burned CDs and DVDs on the sidewalk.

Some publications suggest these groups are organized or, in other words, managed by leaders who manage and profit from them. But the reality doesn’t seem quite so exploitive. Kaani Gui, another young Senegalese man, has made a living as one of the “top manta” in Barcelona for the last year and a half. He begins each day heading down to one of the “legal” businesses in the city that sells products imitating recognized brands. There he acquires merchandise for about 100€, each bag, for example, costing between 10€ and 8€ with a street value of 15€. “In a normal day I can earn between 30€ and 40€ if the police don’t appear and there are people in the streets,” says Kaani.

At the beginning, he needed some time to adapt to his new job and only tagged along to watch how his fellow countrymen did it. Later, he bought his own goods and entered the business. Nobody, however, directs him or makes him do any of this. Having finished secondary school and studied literature for two years in Senegal, this young man chose his new reality after observing those with prior experience. “In my country, people are very close, both with family and with friends. It’s normal for us to help each other.”

But everything’s not so easy when it’s time to hit the streets. “The Guardia Urbana are constantly chasing us. Not a day goes by when I don’t feel afraid of them,” he says with a shiver. And his worry is well founded. Take into account that if he’s caught by the police, his merchandise will be confiscated, he’ll spend 72 hours in jail, and then he’ll have to go before a judge who will multar him 250€, a very large and difficult-to-gather sum of money for him. But these are not the only setbacks he faces.

According to SOS Racisme’s annual report, “with respect to altercations in public, some members of law enforcement demonstrate a tendency to stop socially disadvantaged people and to treat immigrant groups with less respect than they do Spanish citizens.” Along the same lines, Kaani says that not all officials treat them badly, but affirms that the majority do use racist language, calling them “negros de mierda” or “negros hijos de puta,” as well as dishing out some physical violence here and there.

But it seems that common sense has not been lost in all branches of the public power. Judicial power appears to understand that, more than being a merely economic dilemma, this type of commerce is linked to social factors. A clear example of this was published in El Periódico de Catalunya towards the end of 2006.

In that instance, and according to what the morning paper pointed out, the “six sentences of the Seventh Section of the Audience of Barcelona set precedent upon absolving and, in turn, confirming the absolution of several people accused of practicing ‘top manta’...” The court specified that the accused only incur misdemeanor charges since “... they are just people trying to find a way to make a living when faced with the impossibility of other, more adequate, means...”

Illegal immigration is an increasingly important and influential theme in the European Union. On a continent in which the ultra-right wing Flemish political party Vlaams Belang (VB) has increased its support in numerous areas, even becoming the most voted group in seven of those areas, and where surveys in France showed that one of every four citizens agrees with the xenophobic political program of the National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen, there isn’t much space left over for favorable change. The flourishing and triumphant right-wing political trends alongside other organizations with similar credos paint an even darker picture of a not-too-encouraging future.

Marineros en la Niebla

by Julián Socorro

"...Merecemos la oportunidad de relacionarnos como queramos. Sin restricciones, sin prejuicios y sin olvidarnos de que la raza humana es una."

Las migraciones son parte de la historia humana. Los diferentes pueblos, que hoy están tan políticamente ordenados y etiquetados, han sido víctimas de cambios constantes, tanto culturales como geográficos. En un comienzo, se trataba de solventar necesidades básicas como la alimentación y la inclemencia climática. Eran éstos los motores que mantenían a las personas unidas y en constante búsqueda. Con el paso del tiempo aprendimos a “controlar” los factores externos y logramos fundar aldeas, luego pueblos y más recientemente ciudades. Estas últimas, aparecían como sitios maravillosos en los que había oportunidades para todos y en los que se recibía con los brazos abiertos a cualquier persona con ganas de trabajar y armarse un futuro.

Pero en algún punto todo empezó a cambiar. No se sabe exactamente cuándo, pero poco a poco las personas dejaron de tener esa importancia intrínsica, tan básica para el desarrollo de los pueblos. Los nombres y apellidos empezaron a ganar importancia en nuestras vidas, y las clasificaciones y diferenciaciones se apoderaron de nuestra existencia. Fue entonces cuando comenzamos a vivir bajo etiquetas inventadas por gente que tiene el poder y que parecen haber olvidado que, al fin y al cabo, el objetivo de los gobiernos y de las leyes que nos rigen debe apuntar a lograr un bienestar general, global; que los hombres somos iguales en todos los rincones del globo; que mantenemos las mismas necesidades básicas de toda la vida y que merecemos la oportunidad de relacionarnos como queramos. Sin restricciones, sin prejuicios y sin olvidarnos de que la raza humana es una. Por eso, cuando saltan a la luz pública estudios que indican que “seis de cada 10 españoles consideran que el número de extranjeros en España es excesivo”, o que “la mayoría de los ibéricos señala a la inmigración como el principal problema de Estado”, según el Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, sólo puedo pensar que el rumbo está perdido, muy perdido.