Another shore: Morocco's child migrants
January 30, 2015
A group of minors, all aiming to cross to Spain, hang out by the port [Eloise Schieferdecker/Al Jazeera]
Tangier, Morocco - Saber first decided that he wanted to live in Spain when he was 10 years old. Hoping for a better life on another shore, he began to think of migration and of leaving his family behind in Morocco.
Now 13, rosy-cheeked and rustling in a thin yellow windbreaker, he stands with his friends at a stone lookout nestled high in Tangier's medina, watching the sprawling ferry port across the street.
"I have been trying and still am trying," Saber said of his attempts to illegally breach the port's entrance, secure a hiding place on one of its boats, and cross to the other side. He added, "My parents know and they tell me, 'May God help you.'"
Human Rights Watch estimates that of the 3,000 to 5,000 unaccompanied foreign minors in Spain, the majority are Moroccans. They arrive in Spain alone, having left their parents behind to embark on clandestine journeys considered illegal by the Moroccan government.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2014/12/shore-morocco-child-migrants-201412219045386574.html
