With this reading we learn almost first-hand about the way of life of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors in Melilla

Buscar la vida: la crónica de la desesperación y el abandono

photo_camera Sabela González

Wahid is the name of the first protagonist, but not the only one, that we find in this research work by Sabela González and José Bautista, 'Searching for life: Chronicle of migrant children trapped in Melilla'. Through their steps we discover in this book, published in September 2020, the reality of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors on the other side of the shore, all the factors that revolve around the migration of children and adolescents and the difficult conditions in which they are trapped in Melilla. 

Although these minors believe they have arrived in Spain, we understand through González and Bautista that the reality is far away, as these children arrive in an Autonomous City of Spain, but not in Spain. The dream of these minors who arrive in the city is to cross the sea, as it is on the Peninsula where they believe they will find the future that Melilla does not give them. From the outset, we can conceive of this city as an "island on land", as the two authors point out, since it is a territory that is trapped between the border fences with Morocco and the sea, which distances it from the mainland by 170 to 211 kilometres. By understanding this, we come to understand that what happens in Melilla virtually stays in Melilla.

Sabela González

In these 317 pages of research, these authors accomplished an exceptional research work by digging through the newspaper archives of the national media on the corruption scandals taking place in the city. It is very easy to lose track of them all, as it seems like a long, endless list of cases of money theft, manipulation and bribery that revolve around the political party that has ruled Melilla under Juan José Imbroda (Partido Popular) for almost two decades. In addition, it highlights those companies that should be looking after the safety and protection of children, but which, however, are far from doing so.

This work, which was carried out during 2018 and which was based on the Master's thesis of the journalist and expert in communication specialising in Human Rights, Sabela González, takes us on a journey through the streets of Melilla to get to know almost first-hand the dehumanising situation that the so-called 'mena' live in. Not only Wahid, but many other children like Anis, Salim, Kadir, Zaki and a long etcetera, have been forced to risk their lives to reach Spain in search of a dignified future, where they can work and earn a wage to send back to the families they leave behind. This is why this book shows us that these children come with fixed objectives because their lives in their places of origin were meaningless. 

Sabela González

They first start to risk their lives when they try to cross the Moroccan-Spanish border. Our protagonists do it in different ways, but Wahid in particular did it by sea, swimming the few metres that separate Morocco from Spain. Other children do not choose this method and hide in the underside of cars and on the tops of trucks to cross the border, a very dangerous technique that they do not only on this first journey, but they also use it to cross the sea between Melilla and the Spanish mainland. Such activity is called "risky", something that all or almost all of these children know first-hand. Once in Melilla, they seek a way to reach other parts of Spain, which is often only a bridge to the rest of Europe.

However, González and Bautista show us that many children do not make it to the mainland, that many others get stuck in Melilla and that a few others simply face reality and cross the border again to return home. What leads to uncontrollable frustration is the knowledge that they have no way out of Melilla and that the situation will not improve.

Sabela González

When we think of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors, we think of children and adolescents who receive protection, food and clothing from the receiving country. In addition to this being the reality that these children should experience, we see in this work how in Melilla these minors prefer to live on the street rather than in reception centres. This is neither ungratefulness nor non-conformity, but rather that these centres are the focus of many aggressions by other peers and/or workers, conditions are subhuman and they accumulate an exorbitant number of children in each room. They are given neither physical protection, nor safety, nor food, hygiene is far from adequate and each mattress is shared by a couple of children. o ni la comida, la higiene queda lejos de ser la necesaria y cada colchón es compartido por un par de niños. 

Sabela González

The situation on the street is no better, but it is preferable because at the end of the day they can get something to put in their mouths, as well as money from odd jobs, such as cleaning car windscreens, with which they can buy clothes and soap to wash themselves at the beach showers. This whole journey leads us away from the ignorance and misinformation we are exposed to and opens our eyes to discover and solve any doubts we may have on this subject.

Sabela González

It is a necessary reading that shows us the daily life of a minor in Melilla, how their life is losing meaning and how they become demotivated and fall into drugs and alcohol when they see that receiving a residence permit is not as easy as it should be. Trapped in Melilla, unprotected, persecuted and discriminated against, minors suffer the consequences of governmental and systematic mismanagement, lack of protection by those who should ensure their safety and social marginalisation for being children and migrants.

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