The possibility of Ebola in Algeciras and Tarifa

An immigration centre in the Campo
de Gibraltar (AFP)

(Date: Wednesday, Oct 08) ALGECIRAS – Last night, Wednesday, there were rumours flying about that there were several cases under suspicion of immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa carrying the feared Ebola virus. A survey among the various places the immigrants that come over on flimsy boats are given refuge in Algeciras and Tarifa, as well as local and national media, confirmed that there had been some suspicion but no confirmed cases. It isn’t surprising that suspicion would arise in the two towns, where these centres are overwhelmed at this time of year – summer is the preferred time of year to risk your life crossing the straits in what often amounts to nothing more than

inflatable sun loungers.  The rumours may be//the result of a lack of geographical knowledge: most of the immigrants come from East Africa, not the West, although they very rarely carry with them any documentation (for fear of being returned as soon as they make land), which makes it difficult to be certain of their original country. A source at one of these centres tells me they have only once in ten years not had an interpreter for one case – and she and her baby came from East Africa (he was unwilling to specify the country).

Another place where these boats often arrive is Motril, in Granada, where they do not report any confirmed cases, though there were a couple of suspicious that were tested.

Using the word ‘arrive’ here as we do could be misleading. Although the number of boats crossing the Straits of Gibraltar aiming at Spain is very rarely reported in the British press, no doubt our readers will have heard about the island of Lampedusa in Italy, which has a similar problem: their refugee centres are as overwhelmed, understaffed and underfinanced as those in Spain.

Most of these ‘vessels’ are towed in from the open seas, sometimes as the result of mobile phone communication from the craft– there can be no count of how many leave the shores opposite and how many ‘arrive’: it is an illegal and profitable activity as the immigrants often pay their transporters well over $2,000 without any guarantee of ‘arrival’.

People trafficking, which this is, is a human tragedy with little chance of ever being stopped, particularly because European authorities are evidently unwilling to do anything about it.

(Editor’s note: Don’t get me started …)