No Room for Them

style=width:300px;height:202px;float:right;" >

TWO TOURISTS sunbathe on a beach in Southern Spain. But what else does the photo show? If you look past their parasol you can make out a corpse washed up at the sea's edge. This is the dead body of a drowned immigrant man who was trying to make the crossing to Spain from Morocco. The shot was taken on July 13, 2001, by photographer Javier Bauluz on a beach in Tarifa, the nearest point to Africa in mainland Europe. He titled the photograph The Indifference of the West and it was published in newspapers around the world.

Fortress Europe

Many dinghies laden with illegal African migrants do make it to Southern Spain, but a steady stream of bodies are washed up on these shores every year. The majority of sub-Saharan and Moroccan citizens who apply for entry visas to Europe have their applications denied. Seeking work and a better life as economic migrants, some will risk their lives with dodgy operators and dangerous means of transport. Between 1989 and January 2003 there have been 800 proven deaths, but if you take into account the nature of the Strait - with currents, strong winds, cetaceans, cargo ships, petrol tankers - plus bodies appearing on the northern coast of Morocco, then deaths during these 14 years are likely to be more than 2,000.
In just one incident (on June 2, 2003) two dinghies were spotted off the coast of Fuerteventura island. As a Spanish authorities launch approached the dinghies, the passengers in one of them stood up, causing it to overturn. Survivors indicated that 12 people had fallen into the sea, one of whom was rescued, and the dead bodies of nine of the remaining eleven were found in the following days.
In January 2005, the Spanish government was forced to defend its immigration policy after the Association for Human Rights in Andalucia claimed that 289 would-be immigrants died off Spain and Morocco last year, up from 236 in 2003. Human rights groups questioned the growing expenditure put into hi-tech coastal surveillance systems and the high number of deaths that have taken place when migrants have been intercepted or challenged by Spanish patrols at sea. Some detained migrants also claimed they had suffered human rights violations while in custody. Calls started to be made for a radical shift in Spain's closed border immigration policy, which is deemed to be responsible for the ongoing tragedy. An immigration spokesman admitted that the system had encouraged some boats to attempt the more dangerous routes.
Thousands of refugees in desperate situations have died at the borders of Fortress Europe. It seems, however, that refugees will keep on coming to Europe despite the best efforts to lock up Europe's doors. A parallel situation has developed over the past two decades in the Americas.

Fortress United States

Nine migrants trudged across the Mexican border into the blazing Arizona desert just before sunset. Eight men and one woman who wanted work in the US had already travelled by bus some 1,500 miles from southern Mexico. The next 50 miles they had to walk, and it would be, by far, the most difficult and dangerous leg of their journey. It was late July. Temperatures reached 104 F in the shade in Tucson, and several notches higher in the desert sun. The group - known as the 'chickens' and all but one from the same small town near the Guatemalan border - was led by a 'coyote' or people-smuggler.
Just before crossing the unmarked border, the group knelt down and said a prayer thanking God for leading them through the desert. The migrants then stood up and entered the US, the first steps toward finding jobs to support themselves and their loved ones, jobs that do not exist in Mexico. Their ages were 17 to 28, and their stories were much alike. All their families had once depended on the cultivation of coffee and corn, but the prices in Mexico for those products had plummeted in the past decade. 'There are people in our village who some days eat only tortilla and salt,' said Emigdio, 23, whose dream was to become a legal US resident. Two of the men had young children, two had widowed mothers; others had lived with elderly parents or younger siblings who needed support. They also dreamed of making enough money to build small houses for themselves and some day starting their own families. They had all heard of the dangers of crossing, but had decided to go anyway. 'Me, I'd rather die than go back,' said Bestor, aged 24.

Harrowing journeys

Since 1998, thousands of migrants have died in their attempts to enter the US by crossing the desert region between the US and Mexico. Official statistics kept by the US Border Patrol show more than 2,500 deaths since they began keeping records in that year, and these figures only count migrants whose bodies were recovered by their own agents. Bodies recovered by local law enforcement or other agencies are not included in the tally. Furthermore, conversations with the Border Patrol show that many times, a migrant will be removed from the list if the body cannot be positively identified as that of a foreign national. The efforts of border enforcers have driven many immigrants to cross through dangerous mountainous or desert regions where some become ill or meet their deaths. Sometimes, after they are apprehended by US officials, their human rights are violated as they are verbally or physically abused. Even so, statistics tell us that the number of immigrants who succeed in entering the country without documentation has not decreased. Their determination is a testament to the life-and-death economic struggle which forces immigrants to flee their homelands and cross at the US/Mexico Border.
Given the nature of undocumented entry into the United States, many migrants do not carry identification. But the telltale signs of heat exhaustion, dehydration, clothes beaten by the desert, and little or no possessions on them identify hundreds of migrants a year, regardless of their official documentation. They carry swollen backpacks filled with food and water - each person lugging three or four gallon jugs, weighing eight pounds apiece. Despite the heat, they wear long-sleeved shirts to protect against thorns and cactus. There is little protection against border bandits, lying in wait knowing that most 'chickens' carry some money. Along their journey migrants often see items of clothes, discarded water bottles and even shoes. Some individuals may have discarded shoes because of blisters, perhaps having spare ones. Otherwise, they would be forced to walk through the spiny, scorpion-infested desert in bare feet.

Causes of Immigration

The desperation of the migrants serves as a clear example of the forces of globalisation at work - highlighting the inequalities of income and of opportunity inherent in the current system. Each year, millions of undocumented migrants attempt to cross borders, fleeing economically desperate situations or political repression in countries throughout Africa and Latin America. When corporations and goods are allowed to move, but people are not allowed the freedom to seek a decent living, such friction is inevitable.
Many groups are challenging leaders in Europe and the US to consider policies that address the causes for flight. Global social injustice and world-wide armed conflicts make people leave everything behind and risk their lives. They suggest that if the West does not focus on improving the global political and socio-economic situation, it cannot realistically expect people to stay in situations that its own people would find unbearable. A commitment to human rights leads to an imperative to see refugees as human beings with individuals' rights and needs.
In the US in January 2001, several national religious and human rights organisations formed the Washington DC-based Border Working Group to begin collaborating on strategies addressing human rights violations, militarization of border law enforcement, and economic causes of the displacement that has resulted in sharply escalating migration in recent years. They now urge political leaders to end the war on economic migrants, and to legalise economic migration internationally. Group members include the Maryknoll missionaries, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and the Religious Task Force on Central America and Mexico.

DESPERATE FLIGHTS
In the second two weeks of June 2005, 23 people died trying to enter the United States. Below are a few of the victims' stories.
 
June 16: A woman, 8 months pregnant, loses her unborn baby crossing the desert due to heat-related injuries. She is found in Yuma, Arizona.
 
June 17: An unidentified male body is found dead on the Tohona O'odham Indian Reservation in Arizona.
 
June 17: A male body is found on a trail south of the Silverbell Mine near Marana, Arizona. Heat exhaustion was the cause of death. The man appeared to have been dead for several days.
 
June 19: A man is discovered by the Border Patrol near Calexico, California. While being apprehended, the man collapses and fails to respond to resuscitation. He is transported to a hospital where he later dies.
 
June 21: A man in his late 30s is found dead from exposure to the elements in the desert near Rancho Seco, Arizona. Another migrant passed the man sleeping along the trail and informed the Border Patrol, but it was too late.
 
June 23: A 40-year-old man is found dead from exposure in the desert, east of Nogales in Santa Cruz, Arizona.
 
June 25: A man travelling with his cousin dies 1.5 miles south of State Route 86, near milepost 103.5 in Pima Count, Arizona. His cousin told the Border Patrol that they had run out of water the day before.
 
June 27: A man is found dead after his brother-in-law and three others, who are rescued, tell the Border Patrol that one had been left behind. The body is found on the Tohona O'odham Indian Reservation in Arizona.
 
June 27: A 22-year-old man from Jalisco, Mexico, drowns in the Salinity Canal between County 21st and 22nd streets, near San Luis, Arizona.
 
June 29: Border Patrol apprehends a group of five migrants who disclosed they had left another man behind in distress. The body is found dead from heat exhaustion two kilometres south of the Canoa rest stop on Interstate 19 in Pima County, Arizona.