Today Xoan Perillan came to talk about his experience of the southern border of Spain. This was a really interesting topic for us because some us of have never heard of the situation in the Southern border and his presentation really opened up our eyes. We talked about Ceuta and Melilla, which are Spanish territories in Africa. In the light of this conversation we talked about the borders not only as physical and geographical limitations but also as mental an artificial borders.

In the Southern border of Spain, Sub-Saharan migrants have been trying to cross the borders to reach the two cities, because when they are in a Spanish zone, they can seek for asylum in Spain at least in theory. But the migrants experience a lot of violence when trying to cross these borders. We talked about Ceuta and Melilla as borders where the human rights, are not guaranteed. There is a trend in the world, which is called externalization of borders. In this context this means that European countries give away the responsibility to African countries to stop migration fluxes before the European borders. We also talked about the EU and Turkey agreement on migration and used it as an example of externalization of borders. We also talked about the use of violence and illegal pushbacks by the Moroccan police.
Another interesting issue we learned about were the “human mules” we watched a short news clip about an alternative trade network consisting of women carrying duty free goods from Spain to Morocco.

At the end of the day we made an evaluation with our beloved coordinator Laura and wrote the things we liked so far and the things we think we can improve.

Useful Links:

– Melilla, off Human Rights: https://vimeo.com/124410168

– (Vice) Storming Spain's Razor-Wire Fence: Europe Or Die https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmqOlxNQABI

– The 'human mules' of Ceuta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl6dToVWFlM&t=520s

– Tarajal and the 6F in Ceuta
https://6feb-ceuta.org/2016/01/17/documentary-tarajal-a-european-phantasmagoria/