Mohamed Siali |
Rabat (EFE) their country because of the war and before a growing Moroccan control that pushes them to look for other ways like Tunisia.
Five young Sudanese live in a four by three meter room in the popular neighborhood of Labitat, in Rabat. Everyone is waiting for the opportunity to cross overland to the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla, located in the north of Morocco, because doing it by boat is too expensive: between 6,000 and 8,000 euros per person.
In the damp, windowless room where the five young people live, there is hardly any space for their mattresses, which they spread out to lie on. Sitting on them, they talk to EFE about emigration and the new conflict that broke out in Sudan.
“We have two options: try to access Ceuta and Melilla or find another way that does not go through Morocco. To leave by sea from here you need money and we don’t even have enough to eat”, says Mohamed Hasán (28 years old).
Hasan was one of around 2,000 people, mostly Sudanese, who tried to cross into Melilla on June 24, 2022 through the Chinatown border post in one of the deadliest attempts on that border on record.
“I have since lost contact with several friends who were with me that day. Until today they are missing. I don’t know where they are, but I’m sure they haven’t entered,” laments Hasan. NGOs speak of 64 people missing after the crossing.
Voluntary returns, paralyzed
According to EFE sources from the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, 40 Sudanese returned to their country in the last 12 months within the framework of the voluntary return program coordinated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The IOM details that during this period, 204 Sudanese enrolled in the program, from which 2,400 migrants benefited in 2022. But as a result of the new war in Sudan, on April 16 it was decided to temporarily suspend the program.
Migrant care organizations place the beginning of the arrival of Sudanese in Morocco in the summer of 2021 and count between 3,500 and 4,000 in a year. UNHCR began registering asylum seekers of this nationality in June of that year and counted 1,300 requests up to July 2022.
According to the Interior, the authorities of the Maghreb country aborted 4,600 clandestine emigration attempts in 2022 with the presence of Sudanese, out of the total of 40,589 registered that year. In 2020 the Sudanese were only present in 40 attempts.
Back to Tunisia to try for Italy
According to the testimonies of security sources and some immigrants, given the tightening of border control, half of the Sudanese have left Morocco to go to Tunisia, their new destination to cross into Europe via Italy.
Among them is Adnán (30 years old, fictitious name), who participated in the attempt to jump to Melilla on 24J. He crossed into Algerian territory on the 9th on his way to Tunisia, although up to now he has given no sign of his arrival.
“If he is lucky he will reach Tunisia, but if he falls into the hands of the Algerian authorities they will deport him to northern Niger,” his friend Ibrahim Nur (not his real name, 25 years old), who shares a room with the Sudanese from Rabat and joined a new access attempt to Melilla last October.
This migratory movement, frustrated by the Moroccan authorities, ended with the arrest of dozens of migrants. Nur was one of those arrested, later sentenced to three months in prison, and denounces having been mistreated and tried without a lawyer.
Racism and arrests in Morocco
Migrants interviewed by EFE denounce racism, job discrimination and difficulties finding accommodation, among other problems. There are also Moroccans, they point out, who help them with money and food.
“Not all Moroccans are racist, but there are some who are. We live it at work and in transportation. When we find work as day laborers, they never pay us like a Moroccan”, laments Mohamed Adam (23 years old).
Adam denounces that the Moroccan authorities took him away from Rabat twice in the last twelve months. Once to Agadir, 550 kilometers away, and the other to Beni Mellal, 230 kilometers away. “I have refugee status and they don’t respect it,” he laments.