Jose Maria Rodriguez |
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (EFE) It’s not forced, it’s his way of saying “everything’s fine, son”, because he’ll be the one to take you ashore.
Not everything is fine, he walks along the jetty of the port of Gran Tarajal (Fuerteventura) with the little one wrapped in one of those blankets that the Red Cross distributes on the docks, without losing sight of the stretcher-bearers who precede him: they transport Mina, his wife.
The woman is a few months pregnant and arrives in great pain, because the fuel from the pneumatic boat in which the three of them and their other 51 voyage companions sank just a few hours before in the Atlantic has caused severe burns on her legs.
It is 9:45 p.m. on Tuesday, when the Salvamar Ízar docks in the port of Gran Tarajal with the 49 men, four women and the seven-month-old baby whom the crew of a freighter en route to Brazil, the Star Toscana, has saved of drowning north of Tarfaya, in a tire that was coming undone.
The scene is photographed and recorded by Carlos de Saá, the graphic collaborator of the EFE Agency in Fuerteventura, who is struck by the father with the baby in his arms, because they are usually the Salvamento sailors or the Red Cross toilets those who quickly lower children ashore when they are so small, so that they can be seen by the doctor as soon as possible and receive a warm bottle.
His photos portray a man of Maghrebi origin, in his thirties, who ascends stooped and with a serious countenance with the child in his arms up the walkway that goes up to the dock, followed by several young sub-Saharan Africans who came in the same zodiac as his family.
His arms are tense, they hold the child firmly. His gaze, almost blank, directed to the sky. Behind that photo is the story of a journey that began on Monday north of Tan-Tan (Morocco), almost 300 kilometers from the Canary Islands, and ended in a shipwreck this Tuesday north of Tarfaya, in Moroccan waters.
The group had called by satellite phone for help, so all ships en route through the area were asked to remain vigilant, until the Rabat Coordination Center could send rescue means, since they were in their waters.
The 54 occupants of the zodiac were lucky enough to be found by the Star Toscana, a cargo ship almost 200 meters long that stayed by their side for hours (some sources from the NGOs that help immigrants say there were about eight).
But the pneumatic began to come undone, it sank and two desperate people jumped into the water to try to swim to the freighter. The Star Toscana crew reacted quickly and was able to save everyone with emergency rafts. It was finally Spain that sent a rescue ship from Fuerteventura to pick them up: the Salvamar Ízar, which transported them to the port of Gran Tarajal.
Upon arrival on land, after making sure that the child was okay, the assistance focused on the woman with the burns, who also showed signs of dehydration and ended up in the hospital.
Without losing sight of what was happening in the booth where his wife was being cared for, the father walked along the pier with the baby. Another image: the man wobbles this way and that to rock him and a tiny hand reaches out of the blanket to try to grab his face. A national police officer and a Red Cross volunteer observe the scene.
“How old is he?” someone asks. “Seven months”. The assistants handed him a bottle, which the child consumed “almost desperately,” one of the people from the humanitarian organization team that was on the dock told EFE.
“He was beautiful for a seven-month-old,” she adds, surprised. Beautiful and alive, thanks to a ship en route. EFE