Deported Moroccan Migrants Vow to Reach Spain Again Despite Risks

Tafik (a pseudonym) is the survivor of a shipwrecked boat that killed 50 people in 2016 while trying to reach Spain from Libya. Hassan (a pseudonym), for his part, arrived in Spain in 2011 by hiding in a truck of oranges. Although they were deported to Morocco, the two migrants relapsed in 2020 by trying to reach Spain via the Canary Islands.

Tafik, 21, has already returned home to Marrakech, but he does not give up on his project to go to Spain. "It’s my only option to move forward," he says. After 3 years in Libya, he embarked for Italy where he spent a year and a half sleeping on the street before joining Spain. Once in Murcia, he works in a bakery, without a contract, until his situation improves and he starts sending money to his mother in Marrakech. Unfortunately for him, he has a work accident and can no longer use a hand that is in a cast. His boss abandons him in a health center; from there, he returned to the street where he was arrested by the police and later deported to Morocco.

As for Hassan, 32, he spent four years in Spain before being deported. He arrived in Madrid ten years ago, in an orange truck from France. "I hid inside, I was very cold but I slept well," he says. In the Spanish capital, he sold clothes on the streets until his arrest and deportation.

The two Moroccans have a bad memory of this experience. "There was no food at the police station and our hands were handcuffed all the time," they explain. Despite this painful period, Tafik and Hassan are ready to return to Spain to build a better future. "In Morocco, life is not good; the only alternative is to be here," they assure.