Barcelona (AFP)

When he left Senegal and risked his life to reach Spain, Lamine Sarr did not dream of being a street vendor in Barcelona.

This is why he created, with other migrants, a union which has just launched a pair of sneakers to "change the rules of the game".

"Since we were still selling counterfeit goods, we wanted to create a brand, our own creations and our line of clothing", says this 38-year-old Senegalese in the Barcelona shop of the union of street vendors, called "manteros" in Spain, because of the blanket ("manta") they use to display their products on the sidewalk and quickly run away with them if the police arrive.

Latest from the Top Manta brand, created by the union in 2017: sneakers, called "Ande Dem" ("walking together" in Wolof, the most spoken language in Senegal).

Made in small workshops in Spain and Portugal, these vegan shoes, created after two years of working with two artists, are sold for 115 euros and have stood out thanks to a shocking video on Instagram where the union has more than 63,000 "followers ".

"Life is not like an advertisement for sneakers. We know there are going to be traps," said a female voice in this spot showing migrants being chased by police and calling for "changing the rules of Game".

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- Leave the street -

For Lamine - to whom this situation has happened many times and who has even been tried and risked deportation - and for his union, the priority is to help street vendors get off the streets.

A profession to which they are often condemned because of the difficulty of obtaining papers while Spanish law requires in particular three years of presence in the country and a one-year employment contract.

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Originally from the Senegalese countryside, Lamine never told his family that he was going to attempt the dangerous crossing to the Canaries, one of the gateways to Europe for migrants.

After a one-week crossing at sea, he arrived in 2006 in Fuerteventura, an island in this Spanish archipelago located off the coast of northwest Africa.

Before going through several Spanish cities, then settling in Barcelona where he became a street vendor.

Two years ago, like 120 other migrants, he managed to let go of the hasty sale and regularize his situation with the help of the union.

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According to estimates by Barcelona City Hall, around a hundred street vendors are currently working in the city, far from the 700 or so before the pandemic that collapsed tourism.

- "If I had known, I would not have come" -

The disappearance of the tourists got the better of the work of Oumy Manga, who had worked as a street vendor for five months.

Colorful turban matching her dress, Oumy is busy making a t-shirt in the Top Manta workshop: "I don't like selling. That's why we come here, to learn things and not go back to the streets, ”says the 32-year-old.

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Like her, twenty-five people work in a room, obtained by the "manteros" with the help of the town hall, where African music mixes with the noise of sewing machines.

"The basic problem comes from the migratory flows and the legislation concerning foreigners which is not realistic, and it is we, the cities, who must manage the consequences of a law that we cannot change", regrets Alvaro Porro. , in charge of the social economy within the left-wing municipality of Barcelona.

"If I had known, I would not have come", assures Oumy, whose voice breaks at the memory of her crossing at sea, she who did not speak a word of Spanish, and had for only contact an aunt in Barcelona .

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The young undocumented migrant now has a new ally: the sewing machine.

"I would like to continue sewing, that's my job," she says, dreaming of one day presenting her collection.

© 2021 AFP