Moroccan Teen’s Perilous Journey: From Runaway to Student in Spain

"I told them one afternoon that I was going for a walk, and I didn’t come back. My poor mother went to work and, when she returned, she couldn’t find me anymore. My parents looked for me everywhere, without results. I couldn’t tell them where I was going, because they wouldn’t have understood my approach. But now they are happy. There, I had nothing and now I have a future. I study and to be able to earn a living," the young man recounts.

Indeed, without telling his parents that he was going to Spain, after borrowing a truck, Yassine Amiri left home. According to the website sevilla.abc.es, this 20-year-old Moroccan boy was welcomed in Seville by a clerical congregation where he is studying electricity. His dream today is quite simple: to get married and have children.

In Morocco, he had no chance to study and that’s why, at the age of 15, he decided to leave his country. The boy crossed the strait by traveling on one of the ferries leaving Ceuta for the peninsula, the Spanish media specifies. Yassine recounts that he remained in the water for two hours, freezing cold, until he managed to evade the vigilance of the Civil Guard.

In Algeciras, he was arrested and taken to a center in La Línea. From there, he was taken to the religious congregation.