A Spanish coastguard patrolling the coast of Tarifa in southern Spain passes the body of a young sub-Saharan African who tried to reach Spain by sea on July 24, 2000. Offshore, coastguardsmen searched for refugees and migrants in rubber boats.
With the European Union blocking land routes through North Africa, African migrants and refugees saw the sea routes on the islands off the Moroccan coast as their only viable option for entry. When one route was closed, the number of migrants and refugees increased along another. In particular, there were many refugees and migrants from the West African countries of Nigeria, Guinea, and Cote d'Ivoire. Tarifa faced Morocco in Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar and through the Mediterranean Sea. The Spanish coast guard warned the surging migrants and refugees of the danger of capsizing due to severe gusts. Refugees have been pouring across the border, only to be caught and returned by Spanish authorities. Assuming that a life-or-death crisis is always a short-term emergency, migrants and refugees had nothing to prepare for. Over the next few months, as the energy and resources of migrants and refugees dwindled, the emergency continued to be chronic.
Over the past decade, governments in many countries sought to discourage the arrival of refugees and unauthorized immigrants by implementing a variety of measures. They erected fences at their borders and sent armed boats to patrol coastal waters. They fined airlines and truck drivers who transported unauthorized people. It imprisoned asylum seekers or forbade them from working to supplement their meager benefits.
For many refugees and migrants, the cost of being caught up in the strife has been high. They have been cheated, robbed, raped, and killed. They drowned when the boats of migrants and refugees sank on their way to their destination countries. Or they suffocated to death in the warehouses of moving trucks. They froze to death when they walked through mountain ranges. They died of thirst and dehydration in the deserts that straddle the border.
When migrant and refugee smugglers went out of business and the subway railroad was closed, the persecuted poor found it increasingly difficult to flee. Many will remain trapped in Africa. Some migrants and refugees find their way to a better place, others fail. in 1999, two 14-year-old boys hid in the underbelly of a plane just before it left Guinea for Belgium. The boys froze to death in the plane's lower cabin. Among the boys' meager belongings was an envelope that read, "In case we die... was written on an envelope that read, "To help the children of Africa. We are sacrificing our lives and putting them in danger. There is too much suffering in Africa and we need to fight poverty and end war in Africa. The note read. The only solution to illegal immigration and refugees is to remove the root causes: war and poverty.
