The possible installation of a migrant center in Lanzarote, specifically in Güime, and the demonstration of dozens of people in the town of San Bartolomé against its construction have promoted various points of view on the island. The Saharawi lawyer expert in Migrations, Loueila Mint El Mamy, showed this Thursday during an interview on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero her vision on the migrations of migrants by coast to the Canary Islands.
The lawyer has rejected the social belief that migrants arriving by boat pose a "threat" to the rest of the population. It is the "difficulty of acquiring a home, making ends meet and filling the fridge" that really poses it. "The real threat is everything that does not allow people to live in their own territory," she said during her speech.
“The real threat is everything that does not allow people to live in their own territory”
The migrant population emigrates to achieve a better life, clarifies the lawyer. Sometimes, the only alternative available to do so is to get on a boat to reach the Canary Islands. “The threat is not from those who arrive without a visa," she recalled. The way of entering the Archipelago could be totally different. "They cannot leave with a plane ticket," she added. Something that surprises the lawyer, given the money that migrants have to pay to reach Spain. "How is it possible that with 3,000 euros you cannot travel on a plane," she asked.
A belief of "threat" driven by the lack of information. “It still needs to be explained that people arriving by boat do not have a ferry available on which they can ride with their children and family,” she revealed before the radio microphones.
A social context in which the political class interferes on many occasions to feed those beliefs. “Politicians instrumentalize the population from hatred, disinformation, and it is used as a mechanism,” the lawyer assured. She has recognized that in the Canary Islands there is a "great lack of knowledge" regarding the subject. “There is terrible disinformation in the Canarian population,” she pointed out.
Although people "do not want to enter a territory illegally," Mint clarified, it must be taken into account that “they cannot do it on a plane just as we would,” she added. From the Network of Migrant People of Lanzarote they put themselves in the "shoes of Spanish citizens" and "understand that the population does not want them to enter irregularly", but it is a question based "on the rules", which "must be changed", she stressed.
She criticizes that "the focus is on skin color"
The lawyer has listed some of the messages for which migrants arriving in the Canary Islands and Spain are rejected. “They take our jobs,” she pointed out as one of the phrases in charge of "turning on the alarm of fear, insecurity and crime,” she added. An "unreality" verified in the data that make it clear that "there is no relationship between the crime rate and the arrivals of irregular immigration,” she stressed. However, the lawyer has remarked that "crime is related to poverty."
An affirmation "completely far" from reality, the lawyer has shown. Migrants are "occupying jobs that nobody wants and working to pay the pensions of many people," although "they do not know it," she clarified.
In addition, Mint regrets that these beliefs are influenced by the skin color of each migrant. “We hold them responsible for their own poverty and on top of that it bothers us for being black,” she revealed forcefully. She also refers to the Ukrainian refugees welcomed in Spain during the War in Ukraine. "The focus and hatred is always on the same population.” It is the white or black skin color that drives different ways of treating refugees. “We establish a measuring stick that has to do with color,” she stated.
“We establish a measuring stick that has to do with color”
The most important thing to avoid it is the modification of the ideas that are transferred to the population, the lawyer has collected. "The messages must be changed," she pointed out.
People arriving in the Canary Islands from the African continent leave the Archipelago in a matter of hours. "Their destination is not to stay in the Canary Islands, they want to continue their transit,” she explained. The only ones who must remain in the Islands are "the minors" who "have no other option," she revealed. She recalls that the migrants welcomed in Montaña Mina have been referred outside the Canary Islands. “In a matter of a week or 48 hours they have been referred to the Peninsula and outside of Spain."
She has pointed out the "lack of empathy" as the main reason for the "unequal treatment" of the various migrants. "We do not want to see the misfortunes of others and take responsibility for them,” she pointed out. In addition, she recalled that the Canarian population also had to emigrate to South America and has raised the following question. "What would happen if you had to emigrate again from the Canary Islands?".
She has urged listeners to reflect on the attitude of society towards immigration. “Today it is the African continent, but tomorrow it could be the Canary Islands fleeing the climatic situation,” she concluded.
