Migrants ready to enter Europe
2005-10-20 12:32
Maghnia - Mohammed Ali Sanou's wait for a better life is sustained by black market vendors selling cigarettes, rice and basic necessities to hundreds of sub-Saharan African migrants waiting to slip into Europe.
Makeshift shops have sprung up beside ramshackle homes at the camp where he lives outside the northern Algerian village of Maghnia - one of many transit stations filled with migrants trying to enter Morocco en route to Europe.
Many feel no rush to leave. Sanou arrived in the camp of Oued Djordi two years ago from Mali and said on Wednesday he will wait as long as it takes. Migrants from Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and elsewhere are among the hundreds who live at the camp.
"I want to go to Europe," said the 27-year-old Sanou, who lives in a shelter of cardboard boxes covered with plastic. "If it doesn't work, I want to die. Back home, there is nothing for me."
Migrants ready to attempt trip to Europe
The European Union has warned that about 30 000 would-be migrants, mostly from sub-Sahara Africa, are in Algeria and Morocco ready to attempt the trip to Europe.
Their plight was highlighted last month when five immigrants were shot to death while trying to cross a barbed-wire fence between Morocco and Spain. Six more died a week later in clashes with Moroccan security forces.
Since then, Morocco has deported more than 2 500 migrants back to their home countries mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly 1 600 were deported from the northeast Moroccan city of Oujda, just across the border from Algeria where Sanou's camp is located.
Morocco has singled out Algeria for particular complaint, alleging the country has done nothing to stop migrants from crossing into Morocco and has even allowed them to set up camps on the border.
Black market vendors thriving
Many say they have been at the camp in Oued Djordi for years and during their stay have successfully entered Morocco but returned to Algeria after Moroccan soldiers stole their money or opened fired at them.
In the meantime, their makeshift village has drawn Algerian black market vendors who profit off the migrants' refusal to go home and inability to leave where they are.
Vendors do brisk business selling basic necessities at inflated prices. Trucks drive through selling bread.
Illness is common in the camp, where there is no drinkable water and migrants share tents in unsanitary conditions.
"It's terrible here," says Sanou, who was planning another attempt to leave. "Tomorrow, I am going to Europe. We always try."
- AP