Migration: the "Doudou case" stirs Senegal
A Senegalese migrant rescued off the coast of Libya at the end of November 2018 (illustration photo).
AP Photo / Javier Fergo
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
It is a case that arouses emotion in Senegal: a father was arrested this week for having paid a smuggler and organized the departure of his young son on a canoe, bound for Europe.
The child, nicknamed "Doudou", aged 14 according to the local press, died at sea in mid-October.
He dreamed of becoming a footballer.
A drama that is part of a murderous new wave of illegal immigration.
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With our correspondent in Dakar,
Charlotte Idrac
An investigation is underway to understand what prompted this father to embark the young Doudou on a canoe.
The man is in custody at the research brigade of Mbour, on the Petite Côte south of Dakar.
Reasons: "
manslaughter and complicity in the smuggling of migrants
".
The national gendarmerie does not specify the penalty incurred, but indicates that another father, whose son has been saved, was arrested on Wednesday for "
endangering the lives of others
".
Still according to the gendarmerie, this is not the first time that parents have been arrested for having organized the departure of minor children.
But for Boubacar Sèye, president of the NGO Horizons sans frontières, that is not a solution: “
The case of Doudou is creating a shock wave.
The migratory problem itself ceases to be, with the Doudou case, an individual case to be a project initiated in families.
We are told about criminalization, but I believe that the debate is how to eradicate this extreme poverty which is the cause of departures.
"
On social networks, Internet users are calling for national mourning in tribute to the victims of recent deadly shipwrecks, and are organizing a day of “
digital recollection
” this Friday.
In the month of October alone, Senegalese police arrested more than 1,500 would-be illegal immigrants, including 29 couriers.
► Listen again:
Concern in Senegal after the increase in tragedies affecting migrants
■
A new drama in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast
A shipwreck claimed the lives of at least 74 migrants yesterday, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
There were about 120 people on board.
Forty were rescued by Libyan fishermen and coast guards.
Departures from Libya are on the increase, according to the IOM, in particular because of their terrible living conditions there.
And yet, more than 11,000 men, women and children intercepted at sea have been returned to Libya since early 2020. This is more than last year.
For IOM, it is urgent to change approach.
The shipwrecked migrants we spoke to explain that if they attempt such a dangerous crossing, it is partly because of their terrible living conditions in Libya, where they risk all kinds of abuse.
Libya cannot be considered a safe port.
Migrants who are intercepted at sea and returned there are immediately placed in detention centers, where the UN has documented their catastrophic living conditions: extreme poverty, risk of kidnapping, trafficking ... International law provides that migrants rescued at sea must be taken to a safe port, but this is absolutely not the case in Libya.
This is why IOM relentlessly calls on the international community and the EU to put in place a sustainable, safe and predictable disembarkation mechanism that protects the rights of migrants in the central Mediterranean.
Safa Msheli, IOM spokesperson
Florence morice
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