Abdou, the Senegalese man who hugged a volunteer in Ceuta, arrived in Lanzarote after several attempts

This 29-year-old man died last week in Malaga after managing to settle in Spain, leaving behind his newborn son and his wife in Morocco

June 11 2025 (10:52 WEST)
Abdou y Luna se funden en un abrazo tras la llegada de este a Ceuta
Abdou y Luna se funden en un abrazo tras la llegada de este a Ceuta

On May 17 and 18, 2021, more than 10,000 migrants swam across the distance that separates Morocco from the autonomous city of Ceuta. This figure constituted a record, since never before had so many migrants arrived in 24 hours in Spain.

Those days, the migrants swam across the breakwater that divides the Spanish city from the African country. Spain summarily returned thousands of people, including minors who had arrived in Spanish territory without the company of their parents. The Supreme Court confirmed in 2024 that these returns were illegal and that the Spanish authorities acted against the Immigration Law and violated the European Convention on Human Rights by carrying out collective returns, without individually hearing each case.

Among thousands of images of exhausted young people running upon arrival on the shore of the beach, guarded by the army and agents of the Spanish State Security Forces, Abdou Ngom, a young Senegalese man who hugged a Red Cross volunteer amidst tears, made his way. The photograph by Agencia Efe went around the world, under the hashtag #GraciasLuna, she received sexist insults for that gesture. Abdou was expelled back to Morocco.

"The police have beaten me, they have treated us like animals. And, in addition, many girls are raped", he narrated in an interview with RTVE in Casablanca a few days after being deported. In a second testimony collected by the Spanish public channel in 2024, the Senegalese man narrated that he lived in the Moroccan city of Casablanca and that he tried to enter Spain several times.

He did not succeed until three years after what happened in Ceuta, when he boarded a rubber dinghy to the Canary Islands. Maritime Rescue intercepted him after three days sailing the Atlantic with 59 other people and he was transferred to the island of Lanzarote. In Morocco he left his newborn son and his wife.

Abdou died last Tuesday, June 3, in Malaga. His friends have started a campaign spread on social networks to be able to pay for the repatriation of his body to Senegal.

The Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid highlighted in a statement that: "Tragically, thousands of people die every year in their search for a safe place to live; in many cases, they are sent back to countries where their lives are in danger. This was the case of Abdou. We regret that, upon finally managing to settle in Spain, his dream was cut short so soon."

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