Thanks to the intervention of a Spanish NGO, the three migrants arrived at the palms traveling in the rudder compartment of a tanker that left eleven days before from Nigeria were able to apply for asylum. “We express our concern for what happened, in particular for the possibility of hasty repatriation”, said the Spanish NGO Walking Borders he had communicated the request made to the Spanish government in a note.
Under Iberian law, they are not considered migrants such as those arriving on board boats but clandestine passengers. Unless the migrants present an asylum application or are minors, they will have to be brought back to the place of departure by the owner of the ship, who is also called to bear the costs of the new transfer. In the specific case the three should return to Lagosthe main city in Nigeria from which they had set sail on 17 November.
A provision against which the activists of Caminando Fronteras have intervened in an attempt to have the story of the three, presumably Nigerian citizens, evaluated as a specific case. The picture of their arrival in Spainseated on the rudder of the large commercial ship, went around the world recounting the umpteenth tragedy of migration.
The NGO is asking the Spanish government to include the three in a humanitarian program for migrants that could allow them to regain strength after the long journey, which lasted at least eleven days, and to be able to apply for asylum.