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“I have tried this 25 times”
The main respondent is a 20 year old man from Sierra Leone. He shares his story: “I spent three months hidden in the forest between Algeria and Morocco, trying to cross and pass the Moroccan border. In Algeria, you cannot walk freely. If the police see you, they deport you to your country or return you to Niger. This border is extremely dangerous, as there are organized gangs that steal from you and even kidnap you to force you to call your family and ask for money. Additionally, the police are very brutal. If they catch you attempting to cross the border, they beat you up and take all your belongings. They even torture you with hot plastic, burning your skin with melted plastic materials.Once you cross this border and reach the northern part of Morocco, it takes more than three days to traverse the Moroccan mountains before reaching the forest where the fences are located. These mountains are very steep, and it is easy to fall. However, if you do, it is almost certain that you will die. Many people lose their lives trying to climb these mountains.Upon reaching the Moroccan border, you face two walls, each three meters high, topped with concertina wire. There are also dogs trained to chase you. You must be extremely quiet and cautious, as they could bite you.In the area surrounding both fences (the Spanish and the Moroccan fence), there are many bushes and brambles that make access and hiding more difficult. You must crouch to avoid being seen, but these brambles scrape your body, face and hands, leaving you covered in wounds and blood. Furthermore, your clothes get stuck in them, which makes it even harder to move forward.Moreover, the Spanish police use drones and thermal imaging cameras to monitor the area. Even if it is the middle of the night, if a drone detects you, it can shine a very powerful light to help the police locate you.After passing through the forest, you encounter the Spanish fences. The first one is 7 meters high, and the second one is 6 meters high. You must remove your shoes and be very fast in climbing these fences, as the police can spot you and trap you in less than two or three minutes. It is also difficult because the fence bends if you don’t move quickly, and if that happens, you could fall and die.”
Locatoin where the 23rd pushback attempt took place
“If the Spanish police catch you trying to jump the fence, they attempt to subdue you in order to return you to the Moroccan police. They shout at you to stop and get down from the fence, and if you do not comply, they use tear gas to force you to stop. The police can return you even if you succeed in jumping the fences, if they see you in the forest near the fence. For this reason, after jumping the fence, you must rest quietly and hide. You cannot walk on the main road; you have to stay within the vegetation, which is filled with brambles. After I jumped, I spent four days in this forest before I decided to enter the city. I had only a small amount of water with me, which lasted me the first two days. Because of this, I felt that my only option was to leave the forest and search for food and water.When the Spanish police catch you, they return you to the Moroccan police through the small gates in the fence. This happened to me three times. On my 23rd attempt to jump, I was almost finishing my jump over the 6-meter fence when the police began shouting at me to come down and stop. In my previous attempt, I had successfully crossed both fences, thinking I had made it, but then I heard the police shouting at me to stop and get to the ground. As I was coming down, I felt tears welling up in my eyes and began crying on the ground.”
The guards’ houses between the fences.
“When the Spanish police hand you over to the Moroccan police, they detain you outside the small white houses near the fences. They take your belongings—such as jackets, shoes, cell phones, and so on—and set them on fire. Sometimes the guards beat you up to make you stay on the floor. They leave you to sleep outside, without blankets or warm clothes, and provide no medical assistance. At times, I have been held there for up to three nights. For food, they give you the bare minimum: some water and a small piece of bread, sometimes with cheese.Once enough people are gathered, they put them in a van and take them to a remote location, typically in the south of the country, in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Usually, people have no shoes, and their clothes are torn and dirty from the many days spent on the road and from their attempts to cross the border. Due to this, and the increasing racism in Morocco against black people, it is extremely difficult for them to reach the northern part of the country again. Typically, they spend three to four months trying to raise money and recover physically before they can begin the journey back and try again.”
overview
from Sierra Leone,
aged 20.