Waves of immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa keep arriving on the shores of Tenerife in Cayucos, small boats that make the perilous journey across the Atlantic. With the Red Cross often unable to cope themselves, beach-goers are having to help bring the exhausted, de-hydrated, hyperthermic travelers ashore. This is a terrible situation that was repeated again yesterday on La Tejita beach in Tenerife.
The photos speak for themselves…
greytop
4 Aug 06 at 10:39 am
I believe there are at last plans being put together to help the countries these poor people come from to expand their economies. Pity we can’t use the money spent on munitions in the middle east and elsewhere to this end!
The story does not end on the beach of course and they will now be “processed” before being sent home or flown to the Spanish mainland where they face even more uncertainty. God alone knows what their life was like before to make this hellish journey necessary.
Ben
4 Aug 06 at 10:56 am
It hardly bears thinking about really. I would be very interested in seeing a decent peice of photojournalism on their journey and life before they get on the boats…
Marbella
4 Aug 06 at 11:08 am
This appalling tragedy is an example of what a twisted mess this world is. I don’t really accept that the Spanish can’t be better prepared for these people arriving. Yes, the economies of the countries they come from need to be improved to give the people hope, but that is so many years away that we will see hundreds if not thousands more arriving. If the fact is that once they get to Spain there is nothing for them but to be returned home then that message needs to be delivered in their home countries to disuade them from getting on a boat in the first place. I’d like to see more of these people given a chance to stay in Europe – however I can see that will bring problems because then more will want to come than we can cope with. What to do? How do we select who can stay and who can’t?
Edith
4 Aug 06 at 12:38 pm
I agree with all of you. The root causes of this terrible tragedy are poverty, war, and political instability. Unless this situation changes, people from ‘down South’ will keep coming north. The Spanish-language division of Radio Nederland Wereldomroep devoted an entire series to this problem:
http://www.informarn.nl/especiales/refugiadosdesplazados/emigraratodacosta
Londinense
4 Aug 06 at 12:59 pm
I’m amazed. we, all of us, are such a bunch of good-hearted people. We should hug each other and congratulate how good cristians we are. I think we are an example for the world. Our thoughts are so pure and pristine. En fin, to’ er mundo e’ gí¼eno.
I only wonder how many of us would sacrifice our comfort, our cushy lives to be shared with those desperados from the other part of the Strait of Gibraltar. I don’t want to.
ValenciaSon
5 Aug 06 at 3:00 pm
I am justa good atheist. Christianity doesn’t factor in to my equation. Neither does NIMBY elitism or any guilt for any comforts I’ve attained.
Londinense
6 Aug 06 at 12:28 pm
Sorry, Fill de Valí¨ncia, but, what does NIMBY mean?
Stuart
7 Aug 06 at 1:00 am
It’s an Americanism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIMBY
Edith
7 Aug 06 at 8:08 am
NIMBY, Not In My Back Yard: we also use this expression in Holland.
Londinense
7 Aug 06 at 2:59 pm
Thanks, Stuart, Edith.