De Turquía hasta Melilla: las muertes de niños y niñas migrantes marcan la política migratoria

This week marks the fifth anniversary of the death of Alan Kurdi.

The three-year-old who tried, with his family, to have a better life outside his country, and died in the attempt. Since then, this image has been used as a symbol of migration policy by politicians, civil society and human rights organizations. 

A pair of trainers, a pair of blue trousers and a red T-shirt. The image captured by photojournalist Nilufer Demir on the Turkish coast in September 2015 triggered the controversy over the anonymity of the current migration portrait. The image does not show his face, so the message conveyed is one of empathy: he could be anyone, he could be our son. His photography revolutionized the whole world, from politicians to civil society took this death as a call to action, to change, in European and world migration policies. "Let's not forget and let's not be silent," Alan's aunt Tima Kurdi denounced in press conferences after recognizing the body. Alan Kurdi's body was found, lifeless, on the Turkish coast of Bodrum in late summer 2015. 

Alan Kurdi joined the more than one million people who took the decision to cross the Mediterranean in 2015 according to the United Nations refugee agency, the highest figure in the last six years. In this case, the Kurdi family took a boat from Turkey with the intention of reaching Canada by crossing Europe. In total, 3,771 people died crossing the Mediterranean in 2015, a sea that is known as Europe's cemetery. Alan's father was the only one of his family to survive. The boat carrying 16 people sank when it tried to cross the narrow strip of land that separates Turkey from the Greek island of Lesbos. Today, this route between Turkey and Greece, the eastern Mediterranean route, is the third most travelled by sea. 

"European leaders were among the first to say: ‘Never again’, but ever since, they have only made routes more difficult and dangerous for refugees and migrants”, said Anita Bay Bundegaard, Director of Save the Children Europe in Brussels. The organisation reports that some 210,000 unaccompanied children sought asylum in Europe over the past five years. And that, in the same period of time, more than 700 children, including babies, lost their lives along the way. “The way Europe has treated the most vulnerable children in their hour of need is unacceptable", says Bay. "Children continue to die on the EU’s doorstep while European leaders look the other way”.

It was around eleven o'clock at night when two boys jumped into the water from the area of Melilla's courts to get on the boat to Málaga. Other children were on land, watching their classmates, when they heard a warning from some minor entering Melilla from Morocco. A Civil Guard boat left the port towards the southern breakwater. And suddenly, one of the boys began to ask for help. The Zodiac had hit Ahmet's head, - a pseudonym to protect his identity - his companion. His body was floating in the water.  

This is the chilling story of Maria Guillamet, one of the founders of the association Solidary Wheels that works against violations of fundamental rights and is currently in Melilla. "I'm telling you what the kids have told me, who are dismayed by this fact because it could have happened to any of the more than 50 young people who are on the street in Melilla," shares the founder. 

The lack of protection and vulnerability criticised by international organisations materialised last week with the death of a 15-year-old boy in the port of Melilla. During the early hours of Wednesday 26th August, two Moroccan children did what hundreds of young people do every day in the Autonomous City of Melilla: 'risky'.  

'Risky', a term used by unaccompanied foreign minors in Melilla, is a common practice around the port of Melilla and Ceuta. It involves using any effective technique that allows a child, in this case, to sneak onto one of the transatlantic boats that cross the Mediterranean for seven hours until they reach the Peninsula. "Risky' is the only possibility you have left to get out of here without money by sea", says a social educator from Bienvenidos Refugiados (Welcome Refugees) who frequently visits the city and works with children. "You have no other choice, when you try to do things in an orderly manner but the Administration does not allow it, when you go to the centre to get your papers, when you finish your stay in the centre at 18 and they throw you out without papers. You have no other alternative, you can go to Morocco, but in another direction there is no other way out", he denounces.  

This is the situation faced by minors and young unaccompanied foreigners who live on the streets of Melilla. Mostly Moroccans, young people flee their homes in search of a better life in Europe. However, they face the bureaucratic and administrative barriers of the city of Melilla. They prefer to put their lives at risk every day by 'risky' than to be taken care of by the Autonomous City and run the risk of not obtaining the residency documentation that allows them to live regularly in Spanish territory when they come of age.

Melilla is one of the two Spanish cities located in North Africa and the only European territory on the continent. It is a fundamental enclave for understanding the European Union's external relations with the continent and, in this case, with Morocco. On the other side of the European border, Turkey plays the same role with a geopolitical position that connects East and West. 

2015, the year of the death of the Syrian Alan Kurdi, was also the beginning of what is commonly known as the "refugee crisis", when the crisis situation broke out in Syria and millions of people fled their homes to seek refuge in Europe. The year 2015 marked a change in the perception of migration both in Spain and Europe. From that moment on, together with terrorist attacks such as 11M and 11S, migration became a problem linked to security and protection. "For citizens, immigration is the greatest challenge facing the EU", the European Commission published in connection with the spring 2015 Eurobarometer. This change in mentality implied an increase in interest on the part of the European Union in the neighbourhood and in the creation of a strong foreign policy. Specifically, a year later the European Security Strategy was born, entitled "Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe". Moreover, it is in September 2015 that world leaders adopted a set of global objectives to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. This gave rise to Sustainable Development Goal 16, which seeks to promote peaceful societies and inclusive institutions.  

Alan's death in 2015 marked a turning point in European policy, resulting in 900,000 asylum seekers being received in Germany in the same year, mostly Syrians. Countries like Austria and Sweden, less used to receiving migrants, opened their doors. This week's declaration by the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who valued this initiative as a mistake, highlights that the opening of borders has generated "large sums of money" for the mafias and traffickers, while at the same time "incalculable" deaths of people trying to cross the Mediterranean. 

Quotas began to be talked about as a measure for all European countries to take in 160,000 asylum seekers who were fleeing their homes due to conflicts with countries such as Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan or, in the following years, Latin American countries such as Colombia and Venezuela. The deadline was set at two years, from 2015 to 2017. Spain would not fulfil its quota, taking in 16.6% of the 17,000 migrants promised by 2018. In other words, Spain had yet to take in more than 80% of the people promised. The latest urgent measure led by the European Commissioner for Migration, Ylva Johanson, is the relocation of 1,600 migrant children already living on the Greek coast. Spain is not on the list of Member States that have offered to take in the children, but countries such as Portugal are taking in 500 minors, Germany 290 and France 350.  

Relations between the European Union and Turkey were strengthened in March 2016 with the agreement between the two parties. The media played the videos broadcast by the self-proclaimed Islamic state and society feared further attacks. Turkey, bordering Syria, decided to take in refugees fleeing the war and act as a first filter for Europe. In return, it would receive initial funding of EUR 3 billion, which was subsequently doubled. Of the EUR 6 billion earmarked for refugee management on Turkish territory, 685,000 refugee children were given access to schools according to European Union publications. However, the criticism started early. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and UNICEF were among the organisations that departed from this agreement, seeing it as contradictory. Judith Sunderland, Human Rights Watch's (HRW) deputy director for Europe, spoke of "throwing away human rights in the process".  

As an assessment of the agreement, earlier this year, the European Commission published that 2,735 illegal immigrants had been returned from Greece to Turkey, and that arrivals had fallen by 94%, despite the fact that some 300,000 people had reached the Greek coast since 2016. This means that Greece has more asylum seekers per capita than any other EU Member State.This last figure has been used by international organisations as evidence of the failure of the agreement.  

Save the Children notes in its latest report that this agreement significantly reduced the number of arrivals in Europe, but implied an increase in people and children stuck in the Greek islands "in inhuman conditions".  

Months ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reopened the tensions by breaking this 2016 agreement. Turkey opened the borders to the thousands of people who were in their country, and they crossed over to Greece, where there are now about 40.900 people, 34% of them are children. This week, the Greek vice-president and commissioner of the European Union, Margaritis Schinas, sent a clear message to Turkey: "nobody can blackmail or abuse the European Union with threats or tears". 

Spain and Morocco have many open tensions. Issues such as fishing grounds, the Canary Islands' energy resources, sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla, the Sahara, the past conflict over Parsley Island and drug smuggling, as Morocco is the leading hashish producer and exporter. Relations are therefore constantly strained and relaxed. The latest controversial gestures, the closure of the borders of Farhana and Beni Enzar, a hot spot for minors and young people to enter European territory. 

The latest controversy arises this year with the decision of the Spanish government to remove the three-dimensional towrope from the Melilla fence, a 12,000 km network of concertinas installed in 2006 as a measure against the entry of foreigners during the previous year. Last June the government stated that the concertina was being replaced by a metal crown that "guarantees the security of the border", said the interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. This political action was Grande-Marlaska's first promise as head of the Interior Ministry after the statements made by the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Cecilia Malmström: "I am going to talk to the Spanish minister to find out all the details" and thus find out whether the concertina were compatible with EU legislation.  

While Ceuta and Melilla were speeding up these works, increasing both fences by 30%, Morocco was starting its own.  

Five years have passed since the call to action triggered by Alan Kurdi's death. The European Union took steps to rise to the occasion, and since the beginning of her mandate the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, has been working on a new Asylum and Migration Pact, one of her main responsibilities. This pact is based on strengthening the external borders, reforming the asylum system, the rules for returns and the real integration of legal routes into the European Union. "We need a new pact on migration and asylum, first of all because the most vulnerable depend on it, and secondly because our economy and society benefit from legal migration", said the Commissioner in the joint presentation with the The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) last August. Moreover, since the pandemic, the word solidarity is on the lips of all EU officials.  Javier Moreno Sánchez, new Secretary General     of the Progressive Alliance of the group of Socialists and Democrats In the European Parliament, linked the anniversary of Alan's  death to this pact, talking about the duty to "provide for a compulsory solidarity mechanism between Member States, effective search and rescue action for migrants at sea and an integration policy that will improve migrants' contribution to the development of our societies". However, it is essential that the future of EU and Spanish migration policy learns the lessons of recent years, and does not forget the thousands of refugees and migrants who have disappeared, nor the deaths of Alan and Ahmet.