...The brothers sat and spoke of a boat.
They smoked and shared what food they had.
The smallest, a boy of sixteen sits off to the side and listens
as the brothers talk of "a better life..."
Their plan was to reach the Canary islands
only 1700 miles away...
" How far is 1700 miles ? "
asked the boy.
His brother smiled at him.
The little boat was packed.
119 african men and 1 boy
with small sacks,
a little food
a little water and a sweater.
Somalia
Ivory coast
Darfur
and the team from Rawanda
pushed forward,
to a better life.
...10 days around the Atlantic
they drift. The motor had died off three days ago.
4 african men, hero's really, died off too,
they were put overboard with prayer's
to Jesus,
to Ala,
and a prayer for a better life...
They are 115
and 1 boy
who was now alone.
9 days passed they drift.
The boy gets attacked and raped.
Two more die.
They are now 113
and 1 boy,
whom is raped again...
and again,
and again.
A ship pulls along side the small boat.
It's dark.
Lines are thrown. Water in bottles drop.
The boy is small, and they pull him aboard
and asked how old he is...in Spanish.
The boy speaks english and french...
No answer.
He goes with the men.
To the Canary islands they are towed.
Port Christian.
Spain.
113 men and one boy
are imprisoned,
humiliated
and tourtured,
given questionable trials,
bad inturpetures
No flag
No picture of the King,
Don Juan Carlos De Borbón...
then flown over to the mainland.
Malaga, and "Capuchino ",
Center of Interment of Immigrants...
...I watched them walk down the 13 steel stairs,
they stayed close to each other.
They stuck out.
Red hooded sweat shirts and black pants
some plastic shoes and a Red Cross bag,
they stand around the yard of the concentration camp
waiting for some paper. Some paper
in a langauge they don't understand...
I read a few of their papers to them,
"...Order of expulsion. No, there's little you can do
without money or family in Spain...
No, I don't know, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. "
Some men came from the Nigerian embassy.
They want to speak with all the African men, the hero's.
The hero's return, and I go to speak with the boy, who's made it this far...
He told me what had occured ...
" ...They told us all that we were now Nigerian and would be expulsed
to that country in the next 3 days...Tell me, where is Nigeria...?
Draw it for me on a this peice of paper... "
They are sending a boy from Darfur, a country at war and with Spanish
peace keeping troops on the ground, to Nigeria. They did the same
with the men from the Ivory coast, and Somalia, and Rawanda.
All places with some inconcivible saddness's going on,
" ...seems the goverment has some deal with the Nigerian goverment,
a couple of thousand euros per head to accecpt the immigrants... ulgy stuff."
the boy said.
I did not see the boy the next day. We had been sitting
together out in the courtyard yesterday, today he was gone.
The cop's had emptyed the concentration camp of African men, hero's.
I asked the fat mean cop I called " 50 cents ", as he had stole 50 cents
from me on a cigarette deal, I asked him what happened to the boy...
" Back where he belongs..." he said.
The hero's came looking for a better life, and were denied.
A better life for most is a home, some food, and a gig
selling pirated CD's, and fake designer handbags on the street.
No papers, no rights, and they can be arrested and put back thru that racist
and surely illegal system again...
These brother's are the poorest of the poor.
True hero's, if your asking me.
For who else would climb into a little boat
and cross an ocean,
knowing they would die
or end up here...?
A hero.
I was there.
Concentration camp " Capuchino ", Malaga, Spain.
The Amerikan, and no hero, so I wasn't.
I know what the goverment does,
they also attempted to expulse me.
I know very well.
Ulgy. Really ulgy.
I, had come to Spain looking for a better life.
Didn't find it, or wasn't allowed it...
Probably better.
Now I'm back in Amerika...
this goverment does the same
sends poor people back to poor countries without
a hope in hell...
Ulgy.
No human being is illegal.
Simple, no?.
Jess Level
15.10.08
Vashon, Wa
foto:c spl2008 " Hero's " Concentration camp "Capuchino" Malaga, Spain. 02.17.07 all rights reserved.
text:c spl2008 from the journals " 32 day's in the concentration camp "Capuchino" Malaga, Spain" by J.Level
a blog action day post 2008
