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THE MELILLA REFUGEE TRAGEDY, OR BETTER THE EUROPEAN WAR CRIME AGAINST IMMIGRANTS

In the night to Wednesday, local time, during a new assault to the Spanish ex territorial area of Melilla about 65 African refugees were able to enter the Spanish territory. But also many people were injured during the attempt to reach the Fortress Europe, a.k.a. European Union. Also on Wednesday the governments of Spain and Morocco agreed that from now the Spanish “authorities” will deport all “illegal” African migrants back to Morocco. But this means for the most of them their INEVITABLE DEATH!! Here is a report by a European, bourgeois magazine from the last weekend about the refugee tragedy there (yesterday was a very impressive article about it in the German daily Berliner Zeitung, but I dont know if I have the power or endurance to translate it...): ASSAULTING CEUTA AND MELILLA Through the Razor Wire and into the EU By Yassin Musharbash in Ceuta, Spain It's a gruelling journey and many get left behind on the way. But for those who manage to finally scale the razor-wire fence surrounding Ceuta and Melilla in northern Africa, it's a dream come true. They have left poverty behind in the hopes of a new life in the EU. The new arrivals are obvious. Exhaustion written on their faces, many of them are still not up for speaking even after days in the holding center. Several sit motionless, faces propped up by their hands, on a worn-out sofa. Quiet sighs come from the wounded. They stare into empty space. The first impression of desperation is deceptive though: Behavior which normally might be mistaken for depression means victory in Ceuta. After a long battle, they have finally hit the Jackpot. The six men in the room -- all from sub-Saharan Africa -- have arrived in the waiting room for a better life in Europe. The journey is not an easy one. After a several-week-long odyssey across Africa, they've managed to get across the three-meter-high barbed-wire fence that separates Africa from the Spanish city of Ceuta. Now, even though they're still physically on the African continent, they are politically beyond Africa's reach and under the protection of EU law. The Christian organization "La Cruz Bianca" provides them with food and clothing, and since they've all "lost" their passports, they can't be sent back to their countries of origin. But the men, all between 20 and 30, are too exhausted to show their joy. Ayuba, 21, is one of them. He fled the Ivory Coast because of the political insecurity and lack of work. "That was 2003," he says. He arrived in Morocco only after trekking on foot across Mali and Algeria. Then he lived for 16 months in the forests outside of Ceuta. Until last week, that is, when he decided, along with hundreds of others, to attempt to scale the fence. Five of his companions died during the incursion. And they keep on coming Determining who shot them is the subject of serious discussion in Spain and Marocco and Spain immediately sent more security to guard both Ceuta and the country's second northern African enclave, Melilla. But the wave of would-be immigrants has continued, and on Monday morning, hundreds more assaulted the fences surrounding Melilla with some 200 managing to get through according to Red Cross officials. "I want to work in Europe and send money back home," says Ayuba. In the Ivory Coast, he was a farm laborer, he says. He lived in a simple hut and hated his life more and more. "Now everything will get better," he hopes. In a couple of weeks, the Spanish authorities will likely have to take him to the Spanish mainland; the holding center in Ceuta is once again filled to overflowing. Ayuba will then be officially asked to leave the country. But, unofficially, everyone knows that Ayuba won't do that. Instead, Ayuba will labor in the plantations of the Iberian Peninsula, or sell sunglasses on the streets, or move to northern Europe where he'll work on the black market. No one who has made it this far will go back voluntarily. He's dreamed about this moment for a long time. Ayubas story is a typical one among sub-Saharan African migrants -- a group that makes up the majority of the thousands each year who try to reach Ceuta. But, Africans are no longer the only ones dreaming of Ceuta. Indeed, globalization has made a deep imprint on the paths taken by refugees. The 16-square-kilometer enclave has become a world-wide symbol of hope. Indeed, a quick trip to the "Centro de Estancia temporal de Inmigrates" -- CETI for short -- reveals a vast array of peoples and nationalities. The camp is occupied by Iraqis, Indians, Pakistanis, and Algerians, among others, all clad in donated clothes and in possession of green, plastic ID cards. Even Chinese have turned up in the camp -- some of whom took the long way in by actually swimming out to sea from the African mainland and then back to the Ceuta waterfront. Raising the fence won't help Ceuta -- a city that is half vacation paradise and half grimy border town -- deals with the flood of migrants in astoundingly calm fashion. There is little violence say the residents of CETI, and there are several organizations, like "La Cruz Blanca", that help out when CETI fills up. But the residents of Ceuta are aware that things can't continue this way forever. The numbers of would-be immigrants continues to rise and Thursday's deaths show that the EU doesn't have any productive answer to the pressure that migrants are putting on the small city. The fence is now being raised to six meters and the army is taking control of security while Spain itself is determined to allow even fewer immigrants in. In reality, though, the problem is not the height of the fence, but the failure to address the root causes of immigration. No one has an answer to the most pressing question: how to prevent immigrants from leaving their countries in the first place? Ceuta lies on the seam between the first and third world. And as long as Europe seems like a paradise, people will continue to fashion home-made ladders in hopes of crossing over the fence. The story of Nadem Waheed, who was born in Bangladesh, gives a fair sense of the hardships migrants are willing to endure for the sake of reaching Europe. "My income in Dhaka wasn't enough to support my wife and two sons," reports the 38 year-old, who stands in the sunshine wearing a jogging suit and flip-flops. "It wasn't even enough to send my kids to school." Nadeem struggled to save €5,000 for the man who promised to smuggle him "directly to Europe." It was a lie. Instead of a direct path, Nadeem undertook a miserable trek that ended up taking the lives of many of his fellow travelers. Dying of thirst in the Sahara The journey began when the smuggler loaded Nadeem and his fellow migrants onto a cargo ship. After several weeks -- Nadeem doesn't know how many -- the vessel arrived on the West African coast and Nadeem and his companions went on to Mali by foot. "There, they packed 15 of us into a pick-up truck and we crossed the Sahara," says Nadeem. "That took 23 days, and there was almost nothing to drink." Many died of dehydration; their corpses were left behind in the sand. "Most of the time, I was barely coherent. I thought that it would never end. I didn't know where I was. I was scared," he recalls. "Finally, we saw the ocean." Nadeem's group thought that this was the end of the journey. Actually, they had just reached the Moroccan city of Casablanca on the Atlantic Coast. Here, the smugglers herded the Indians and Bangladeshis onto tiny boats, or "pateras." The horror continued. "The boats capsized repeatedly," says Nadeem. "Again, many people died. They just let them drown." Now Nadeem is waiting to be shipped to the Spanish mainland. Nadeem has trouble sleeping because of the terrible journey. He's lonely. For over a year, he hasn't spoken with his wife and his sons; he doesn't know if he'll ever see them again. Nonetheless, he says, "I am happy." Such is a typical portrait of a winner: at least it is here in Ceuta.