In Morocco, one of the main staging points towards Europe, thousands of sub-Saharan migrants are stuck in Casablanca. They were pushed back there by the Moroccan police who prevented them from camping near the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
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At the Ouled Ziane bus station in Casablanca, after being pushed back from the Strait of Gibraltar, migrants have built a large camp of odds and ends. Everyone dreams of crossing the sea and only their representative, Badou, agrees to speak: “The conditions here are not good. I don’t want to settle here, I want to move on”blurts out this Guinean.
Like all other migrants, Badou has of course heard about the immigration law in France and the heated debates which stirred up the end of the political year in France. He rejects the idea that migrants are people who want to benefit from the French social system. “No, those who say that are lying, Badou reacts. The economy of France is the Africans, they are the ones who work there to provide this economy. Africans don’t go there to beg, they go to work.” he denounces.
Anti-French sentiment
Surrounded by his comrades, who approve of him, Badou believes that the immigration law is a consequence of the anti-French feeling which is developing in Africa. “We saw that President Macron did not have much interest in France in Africa. That is why he applied this law. Now Africans are waking up and they have understood that the French are scammers.”
Present for eight years in Morocco, like many of his compatriots, Badou will continue to try to cross the borders of Europe. He says this law will not discourage them: “That day will come, we are waiting here. We’re going to go to France, we’re going to go there“, he concludes.
