Home » News » Spain: unknown migrants in the cemeteries of the Strait of Gibraltar

Spain: unknown migrants in the cemeteries of the Strait of Gibraltar

According to the count of several Andalusian NGOs, between 6,700 and 8,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea between Morocco and Spain over the past three decades. Tombs but also plaques in memory of these migrants who died at sea dot the cemeteries that border the Strait of Gibraltar.

From Tarifa, you can easily see the Moroccan coast. In this month of June, the wind blows with its usual force and regularity. The brightly colored sails of the kitesurfers float in an intense blue sky.

The small town at the far end of the Iberian Peninsula looks like a seaside resort. But do its regulars know that the old fort at the entrance to the port is a detention center for migrants who have entered Spain illegally? Who knows that it is on the beach of Los Lances, at the tip of the peninsula, that in November 1988 the first body of a Moroccan migrant was rejected by the sea?

A visit to the small cemetery on the heights of the city offers another look at Tarifa. The graves are simple, white, flowery and are housed in niches, as is often the case in Andalusia. Bucket of water in hand, residents come to remove the sand and dust that accumulates on the graves of their loved ones.

Looking towards the high niches, we discover the graves of men and women who lost their lives crossing the Strait in hiding. “Immigrant from Morocco, March 7, 2001”: four funeral plaques bear this inscription. A little further on, two others bear the same mention but are dated 2009. Finally, a simple plaque placed in a niche bears an even more administrative inscription: “unidentified corpse. 3rd chamber of the Algeciras court. Provisional decision 47 / 2017 “.

In 2018, according to l’APDHA, 1,064 people lost their lives attempting the short but perilous crossing to Europe. Most of these casualties are quickly identified, because when a shipwreck occurs, survivors often know the identities of those who failed to reach shore. But there are also the anonymous, those whose bodies are then buried without names, in Spain.

Continuing the visit to the cemetery of Tarifa, other stelae attract attention. These have names that sound little Spanish: Esther Adawale, Nigeria, February 24, 2003. Hope Ibrahim, Nigeria, April 19, 2005. Yacouba Koné, Côte d’Ivoire, April 17, 2013. In these graves lie migrants who were identified by the Spanish judicial police but who, for various reasons, were not repatriated to their countries of origin.

Memorial stone erected on the mass grave where 24 migrants were buried who drowned in the 1990s in DGormezanoJosé Maria Perez, an active member of the local parish, says that these graves receive periodic visits from “Christians and Muslims” and that “across the strait, we know of the existence of these graves”.

Miguel Delgado, in charge of aid to migrants at the archdiocese of Cadiz (on which the municipality of Tarifa depends), organizes, every November 1, an ecumenical ceremony in memory of the immigrants who died in the waters of the strait.

Faithful to the message of the Catholic Church on the subject of migration, he calls for “a safe passage for those who want to emigrate to Europe and whom Europe needs”. To raise awareness among its parishioners and public opinion, every second Wednesday of the month, in several cities on both sides of the Straits (Cadiz, Barbate, Tarifa, Algeciras, Ceuta, Tangier, Tetouan, Melila etc …) its association organizes “rounds of silence” which bring together people from all walks of life behind a single slogan “solidarity with immigrants”.

Every year, for International Migrants Day, he goes to Tarifa beach for a public prayer that brings together activists, residents and sometimes a few surfers.

25 kilometers from Tarifa, in the port of Barbate, the appearance of the bodies of lifeless migrants on the shores is not unprecedented either. In the cemetery, the same white tombs nestled on the walls reveal the stories of the strait’s missing.

There too, locations are marked with a simple number or an “unknown” mention, as well as a date. The oldest of these anonymous migrant graves date from 2002, the most recent from 2019. Again, unidentified bodies. And a plaque in memory of “the victims of the strait”.

But in one of the alleys, a tomb stands out from the others. That of Samuel Kabamba, a 5-year-old child from DR Congo. Its story has caused great emotion in this region of southern Spain and far beyond.

the story of little Samuel, a 5-year-old Congolese child found dead on an Andalusian beach in 2017, shook Spain.  © D. GormezanoAt the end of January 2017, his body was found lifeless on a beach near the small Andalusian fishing port. That of his mother, Véronique, was rejected by the sea 15 days later on the Algerian coast.

The discovery of the body of the little boy provoked the indignation of associations for the defense of migrants and Gabriel Delgado who organized a funeral vigil on February 1 on the beach where he was stranded. A hundred people came to pray and to throw flowers at the sea. The affair became publicized echoing that of little Alan Kurdi, this Syrian child found drowned on a beach in Turkey in September 2015.

At the beginning of March, the Spanish authorities authorized the father of the little boy to travel to Spain. A DNA test confirmed that little Samuel was indeed her son. The father organized his son’s funeral in Barbate on March 10.

That day, the church was packed. The inhabitants of Barbate came in large numbers, little Samuel now rests among them. Every day, women flower his grave “because his relatives are far away, someone has to take care of him” confides an old lady.

The cemetery of Barbate where the graves of migrants who died at sea are decorated with flowers by the inhabitants of DGormezano

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