After the death of their children aboard a small clandestine boat in Los Cocoteros, the punished town of Guelmin, in southern Morocco, has mobilized to fight against irregular immigration and its consequences. More than a month ago, more than thirty Moroccans boarded a patera on their way to the Canary Islands. Their cayuco shipwrecked just twenty meters from Lanzarote, in Costa Teguise. The balance was dramatic: 26 people died, mostly children and mostly from Guelmin.
Now, the Southern Association for Immigration and Development, based in El Aaiún, has organized a series of awareness days against clandestine immigration in Guelmin, which will take place this Friday and Saturday. Abdellah El Hairach, president of the Association, explained to ACN Press that one of the strengths of these days will be the participation of the families of the victims of the "death patera", who will present their case to their neighbors.
In addition, during the conference there will be an exhibition of children's drawings on this theme, according to El Hairach, and there will also be screenings of films that address clandestine immigration. Likewise, this issue will be debated from a religious point of view. "Clandestine immigration is like suicide, and suicide is prohibited in our religion, which is what we want to convey to the boys and their families," ElKoua, from the Southern Association for Immigration and Development in Guelmin, explains to this agency.
The conference will take place at the Guelmin Lyceum, to which two of the victims of the Lanzarote patera belonged. "We want to raise awareness among their classmates, who may also be tempted to follow in their footsteps and leave for what they believe is Paradise, risking their lives," he declares.
The Association of Elkoua and El Hairach hope that these days will serve so that the dead of Lanzarote do not fall into oblivion and to prevent the story from being repeated in an arid and desert area, where it is not difficult to succumb to the temptation to risk everything for a better future.
ACN Press